3rd Bradley Smith:
“It can is obvious that victory would have been an option had I been able to slipstream Pol, but it wasn’t to be. My plan was to stick behind him and pull out on the line, but on the last lap Sandro got in between us and closed up. I am satisfied with the result, especially on a day in which so many other guys fell. I was lucky not to go down when Terol crashed. I had a good pace, even though we had lost a lot of time on day one with the crash in practice, so I owe a lot to the team for their work this weekend. They were speedy in preparing the bike to perfection for m despite the time constraints. We were able to finish off the weekend with a podium, which is good when you consider that Portugal is not one of my best tracks. We are a little too far from the title, but we are in a good spot to finish high up in the standings and I know that I can go well in Australia. We have taken a step forward this weekend, so I hope that this continues at Phillip Island.”

Pos | Rider | Bike | Time
1. Pol Espargaro Derbi 41m00.421s
2. Sandro Cortese Derbi + 0.394s
3. Bradley Smith Aprilia + 0.581s
4. Stefan Bradl Aprilia + 11.048s
5. Joan Olive Derbi + 16.830s
6. Sergio Gadea Aprilia + 17.170s
7. Esteve Rabat Aprilia + 17.300s
8. D.Agerter Derbi + 17.546s
9. Johann Zarco Aprilia + 17.666s
10. R.Krummenacher Aprilia + 21.378s
11. Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia + 26.312s
12. Julian Simon Aprilia + 31.500s
13. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia + 34.194s
14. Jonas Folger Aprilia + 35.023s
15. Luis Salom Aprilia + 54.243s
16. Scott Redding Aprilia + 54.332s
17. Jasper Iwema Honda +1m02.994s
18. Alberto Moncayo Aprilia +1m03.054s
19. Sturla Fagerhaug KTM +1m03.061s
20. Johnny Rosell Aprilia +1m24.171s
21. Jakub Jantulik Aprilia +1m37.379s
22. Luca Vitali Aprilia +1m50.590s
23. Quentin Jacquet Aprilia +1m50.852s
24. Jordi Dalmau Honda + 1 lap
25. Jakub Kornfeil Loncin + 1 lap

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

Rider | Bike | Laps
Danny Webb Aprilia 22
Michael Ranseder Aprilia 17
Luca Marconi Aprilia 13
Marc Marquez KTM 12
Simone Corsi Aprilia 9
Nicolas Terol Aprilia 8
Efren Vazquez Derbi 7
Cameron Beaubier KTM 4
Tomoyoshi Koyama Loncin 3
Andrea Iannone Aprilia 2

FASTEST LAP: Cortese, 1m45.722s on lap 11

Scott Redding
“The team have been working hard for the last three weeks to sort out the problems with the bike and so hopefully I can finish the race on Sunday. It’s an important last four races and also a big weekend when the Moto2 entry list for next season will be announced.”

Danny Webb
“My goal for the last four races is to finish all of them in the top ten. I’ve been training hard in the break and as my results show at Estoril last year I really like the circuit. It’s important that we get a good set-up from the start on Friday afternoon which we did at Indianapolis and Misano. I’m confident of a good result on Sunday.”

James Toseland
“It’s an important four races for me and my future. I was disappointed to finish tenth at the last round in Misano where I think I could have finished in the top six if I’d not got pushed back in the first bend incident. I was seventh at Estoril last year which should be a good start to work on this weekend.”

His Spanish team ran different engine configurations during the Portugal test as the British teenager ended fourth quickest overall.

And despite finishing a massive 1.3s adrift of dominant Aspar Aprilia team-mate Julian Simon, Smith was satisfied with his own display with just five days of testing remaining before the first race in Qatar on April 12.

Smith enjoyed his best world championship campaign in 2008 with four podium finishes.

“I was able to consistently ride in the 46s and I was happy with the work I was doing with the bike. It was another 160 laps on another completely different circuit and I think testing in Estoril was necessary.

“We normally always ride in Valencia and Jerez and you can get into a bit of a rut and you don’t end up trying too much. We improved the engine a lot in Estoril. The team has been working very hard since the first couple of tests and they came up with some new configurations. The engine was really on song and felt really powerful. The acceleration was much better.

“I was able to come out of corners and the bike felt much pokier and it seemed to drive really hard and that is really important in 125s. It’s more important that top speed. Acceleration and mid-range is where you need to work and we made another big step. The moment you get on the throttle it powers through the rpm and picks up a lot quicker with a lot more power.”

Danny Webb:
“This wasn’t the best day of the test here at Estoril. We struggled in the morning with the set-up of the engine but at the end of the morning we had a good set-up. Unfortunaly the weather changed compare to the two days before. Their was a lot of wind today and it is hard to improve your lap time. In the afternoon it went better and we worked a lot on the suspension set-up. Two hours before the end of the day we had small engine problem and decided to call it the day. I’m quite happy with this test. The bike has a lot of potential. We still have five more days of testing and I can’t wait for next week to ride again during the official IRTA test at Jerez.”

Scott Redding
“I am more and more comfortable on the RSA and I am getting better sensations from it. We are working very hard to get a good setup for the beginning of the season but we have not got it quite right yet though, but we are getting closer. What I most like about the RSA is the low rev power, but what is most difficult for me is to get a good setup on the chassis. At the start of these three days in Estoril we had a lot of problems, but as the time passed we found the right solutions and I think that we will go to the IRTA in Jerez in good conditions.”