Zoom Nico Terol

Spanish rider Nico Terol maintained his position at the head of the 125cc timesheets in Jerez to take provisional pole for the 125cc Gran Premio bwin.com de Jerez, onboard the Jack&Jones WRB bike new to the 19 year-old this season.

If Terol can hold on in tomorrow´s second timed classification session, then it would be his first pole position for a World Championship race.

Terol cut a second off his morning practice time, laying down a 1´48.078 lap of his home track. In doing so, he edged out new team-mate for 2008 Simone Corsi by two tenths of a second. The remaining Jack&Jones WRB rider participating in this weekend´s race is Axel Pons, son of former World Championship star Sito and debutant in Jerez.

Polaris World´s Bradley Smith was once again amongst the frontrunners after only managing to finish 23rd in the morning session, moving up to a provisional front row position late on in the opening qualifying run. The Briton overcooked an attempt at a potential pole lap on one of his final sprints, running wide with two minutes remaining on the clock.

The provisional front row is completed by German Stefan Bradl, who sneaked into fourth place much as he did in the opening race of the season in Qatar. Behind him, Belson Derbi´s local boy Pol Espargaro, American sophomore Stevie Bonsey, Ajo Motorsport newcomer Mike di Meglio and Italian maestro Raffaele de Rosa make up row two.

Youngest top five finisher in Grand Prix history Scott Redding and current series leader Sergio Gadea complete the top ten, with the latter still sore after braving a dislocated collarbone en route to victory at Losail three weeks ago. His Bancaja team-mate and reigning World Champion Gabor Talmacsi finished eleventh.

DORNA / CAPSIS International