Simón starts strong in Assen 125cc practice

World Championship leader Julián Simón was the quickest rider out of the blocks in the opening 125cc practice session for the Alice TT Assen, stopping the clock at 1’46.725 onboard his Bancaja Aspar two-stroke.

The Spaniard was some dead-on two-tenths of a second quicker than second fastest man Sergio Gadea, his teammate in Jorge Martinez ‘Aspar’s successful 125cc structure. Simón’s lap knocked Gadea off the top spot in the final moments of the session.

Nico Terol, riding as the number one rider for the Jack&Jones WRB team for the first time following the departure of Simone Corsi from the Sito Pons-run outfit, continued the form that had taken him onto the podium in Barcelona two weeks ago, placing third ahead of title contender Bradley Smith in a tight top four.

In the top five for the first session of his DeGraaf Grand Prix team’s home round, Danny Webb showed remarkable improvement from his nasty Barcelona finger injury as he fought to keep up with the strong starters.

A fall for Pol Espargaró prevented the Belson Derbi youngster from any further riding for the day, thankfully due to damage to his machine rather than to the rider himself.