German Stefan Bradl leads the Moto2 title chase into the Jerez round in Spain.

The second round of the MotoGP World Championship takes place at Jerez in Spain this weekend, with the Moto2 and 125cc Grand Prix categories also set to provide plenty of on-track entertainment across the weekend.

Leading the way in Moto2 after round one is Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing), whose second Moto2 victory of his career came from his first ever pole position start at the Losail circuit.

The German rider led Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) and Tom Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) across the finish line in Qatar, with Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) and Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing) all putting forward early reminders of their ambitions to be challenging at the top this season in the ultra competitive category.

Lüthi placed on the podium at Jerez in last year’s race and will aim for consistency as the early stages of the season unfold, and alongside the top five finishers from Qatar a number of others will be forceful in their attempts to push forward and initiate a pressured atmosphere around their numerous rivals.

Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project) and Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing) will be amongst them, as will pre-season title favourite Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar), who placed 10th in the season opener and whose focus will be the podium.

Likewise, Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) will aim to recover ground following his 31st placed finish at Losail.

Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Racing) made an impressive start to life in Moto2 with a top-ten finish and will hope to continue on the same path at Jerez, whilst Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) will be determined to make up for what was a frustrating debut in the category following a crash.

Joining the field for the second round will be two wild card entries, Iván Moreno (Andalucía Cajasol) and Steven Odendaal (MS Racing), as the Moto2 spectacle intensifies.

Spanish rider Nico Terol will aim to build on a formidably strong start to the season on home soil following a dominant win in Qatar.

The Bankia Aspar rider took victory in the first race of the 125 season by more than seven seconds at Losail, further underlining his status as title favourite this year.

Last year he finished second in the race at Jerez and will now aim to go one better, and Terol is the only rider from last season’s Jerez race top five who remains in the 125 class this season.

Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) and Sergio Gadea (PEV-Blusens-SMX Paris Hilton) completed the podium in Qatar and will hope to reduce the substantial advantage Terol held throughout the weekend.

Efrén Vázquez (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo) and Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) both scored top-five finishes and will target further progress following their promising starts to the campaign.

Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar) will seek an immediate response following his Qatar result, having finished 11th, and the Spaniard will be well aware of the importance of not letting teammate and rival Terol open up too great an advantage in the early rounds.

Rookies Maverick Viñales (PEV-Blusens-SMX Paris Hilton) and Miguel Oliveira (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica) impressed with top-ten finishes at Losail, and the young talents will be supplemented in round two by wild card entries Josep Rodrigues (Wild Wolf – RACC), Daniel Ruiz (Larresport) and Kevin Hamus (Team Hanusch).

The Mahindra Racing team made an encouraging world championship bow in Qatar with riders Danny Webb and Marcel Schrötter, and will arrive at Jerez – where the category completed its final pre-season test at the start of March – confident of making further advances.