125: Vinales wins, Terol seals title
Nicolas Terol is confirmed as the very last 125GP champion after doing more than enough to seal title glory on home soil in Valencia.
Terol needed a mere 11th place finish to become world champion, but while a steady start had him circulating in the bottom half of the top ten, Johann Zarco's crash from fifth on lap three - his first DNF of the year - made the Spaniard's title win a foregone conclusion.
Terol would go on to finish in second place, behind Maverick Vinales, who completed his first season of grand prix racing in impressive style by claiming his fourth 125GP victory of the season - the last 125 race before it becomes Moto3 in 2012 -, while Hector Faubel rounded out the podium.
Seemingly keen to race for the points he needed, Terol held back in the early stages, allowing Faubel, Vinales, and Sandro Cortese to dispute the lead. However, when Zarco dropped his bike at turn ten, Terol was afforded the luxury of pushing safe in the knowledge that he would be champion regardless of his result.
Up at the front, Cortese's crash from third place on lap eleven coincided with Vinales's dive into the lead, but Terol was now pushing forward and was on the back-end of the lead group by lap twelve.
Carrying his momentum forward, Terol nosed in front for the first time on lap 13, but a charging Vinales would not be denied, the 16-year-old - cheered on by his team's distinctive chief sponsor, Paris Hilton - romping to the front to claim bragging rights on home soil ahead of his countrymen. Win number four means he ends the season ahead of Cortese in third overall.
Having slipped back to third in the closing stages, Terol worked his way back up to second ahead of Faubel to unleash his title celebrations for Bankia Aspar on an all-Spanish podium.
Behind them, Efren Vazquez got the better of Jonas Folger for fourth, while Alberto Moncayo was a fortunate sixth after picking up three positions on the final lap, the Spaniard benefitting from Danny Kent crashing out from eighth, before Luis Salom and Adrian Martin came down on the last corner.
Salom got back going to secure seventh, ahead of Finn Niklas Ajo - who scored his best result of the year - Luigi Morciano and Louis Rossi.
Having started from a historic pole position for Mahindra, Danny Webb had the honour of getting an impressive start and leading the entirety of the first lap, before he was overhauled by the chasing pack. He would be circulating just outside the top ten when he fell.
Of the other Britons, John McPhee held it together to creep into the points with a fine run to 14th, while Taylor Mackenzie and Harry Stafford also failed to finish.
Race results:
1. Vinales (Aprilia) 41m 44.138s
2. Terol (Aprilia) +3.216s
3. Faubel (Aprilia) +7.460s
4. Vazquez (Derbi) +14.560
5. Folger (Aprilia) +18.451s
6. Moncayo (Aprilia) +36.472s
7. Salom (Aprilia) +52.614s
8. Ajo (Aprilia) +1m 00.138
9. Morciano (Aprilia) +1m 00.253s
10. Rossi (Aprilia) +1m 03.258s
14. McPhee (Aprilia) +1m 18.434s
17. Kent (Aprilia) +1m 27.770s
Mackenzie (Aprilia) DNF
Webb (Mahindra) DNF
Stafford (Aprilia) DNF
