125cc – Estoril FP1 – It's raining, Talmacsi in command

The "bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal" began on the Estoril Circuit, the third round of the 125 MotoGP World Championship, with the first free practice session reserved for the 2008cc riders. Forty-five minutes available for the under-28s of the eighth-litre class with the surprise of the rain and the best time set by the reigning champion, Gabor Talmacsi, stopped in these first two seasonal events by technical problems with his Aprilia RSA. The local Hungarian Bancaja Aspar with a time of 2'02"093 preceded Mike Di Meglio by almost 2 tenths, confirming himself at high levels with the Derbi RSA of Ajo Motorsport; the transalpine stood out with a notable time, taking into account the weather conditions, preceding the pair of the KTM Onde 2000 team, Pablo Nieto and Raffaele De Rosa, who remained with a delay from the top of around second.

Not exactly brilliant timing references, but a great fifth position for Dominique Aegerter, the Swiss positive revelation of this start to the championship. With the "old" Derbi/Aprilia RS, Aki Ajo's second rider precedes two riders, for the moment, reunited after a bad start to the season: Pol Espargaro, with the official Derbi, and Andrea Iannone, standard bearer of the IC Team of Fiorenzo Caponera. The Italian holds his own against the expected Bradley Smith, Stefan Bradl and Simone Corsi, with Jules Cluzel's Loncin in the middle, incredibly. The Chinese company, we remember, races with 125cc bikes built by the very Italian Engine Engines, practically the "updated" Malagutis that raced two seasons ago.

To close the report of this first test session, we highlight the performances of the other Italians: Bianco is 14th ahead of a comeback Zanetti, with Roberto Lacalendola 21st and, further behind, Dino Lombardi, in his second appearance of the season with the Blusens team. Last position for Axel Pons 14" from the top.