Julian Simon Clinches 125cc Title In Australia
With Australia nine hours ahead and the 125cc race atypically kicking off at 1pm local time, Spain awoke to a new 125cc World Champion on Sunday morning. Julián Simón clinched the accolade in a race that strongly resembled the previous run-out in Portugal, with all the close group fighting and lightning fast lap times seen in Estoril continuing at Phillip Island. The two quickest riders in practice, Espargaró and Smith tried to set the early pace, but in the end it came down to the Bancaja Aspar riders. Simón overtook Smith to accomplish his goal of becoming the 125cc titlist with a race victory.
A fifth victory of the year gave Bancaja rider Julián Simón the 2009 125cc World Title. He was quickest in the warmup session and continued the speedy pace come race time, but with a less risky strategy than that used in Portugal two weeks ago. After a spell stalking the lead group, Simón made a move with ten laps to go and got in amongst the leaders, before breaking away with teammate Bradley Smith. Three corners from the end of the final lap, a pass on the inside took him up to first place, and he blocked the slipstreaming attempts to take back the spot. He now has an unassailable 55.5 point advantage over Smith in the overall standings, guaranteeing him the 2009 crown.
1st Julián Simón – 2009 125cc World Champion:
“What I most want to do now is be with my team and enjoy this moment of happiness. What I felt upon crossing the line was frankly unexplainable -it was beautiful. The first thing that came into my head was the gratitude that I have towards the team, because their hard work has been the key to this title. When I signed the contract last year it was like taking a step back, as if I had never been able to be a frontrunner and that I was dropping back down. This year I got the opportunity to show my experience and quality. I want to thank Jorge and Gino for giving me a chance, as both they and my manager were behind me all the way. I think that this was the most risk-free and intelligent race that I have had all season. I was patient this time around, having learnt from the error in Estoril. Here the race is dictated by slipstreaming, but I was able to avoid this when I broke free with Bradley. I saw my opening on the last lap and I knew that it would be difficult to win, but I was able to negate the draft and get the win.”
RESULTS:
Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap
1. Julian Simon Aprilia 37m55.798s
2. Bradley Smith Aprilia + 0.313s
3. Sandro Cortese Derbi + 2.057s
4. Pol Espargaro Derbi + 2.161s
5. Simone Corsi Aprilia + 2.330s
6. Nicolas Terol Aprilia + 3.239s
7. Efren Vazquez Derbi + 3.290s
8. Andrea Iannone Aprilia + 12.820s
9. Marc Marquez KTM + 22.355s
10. Sergio Gadea Aprilia + 22.602s
11. Scott Redding Aprilia + 29.181s
12. Dominique Aegerter Derbi + 29.199s
13. Danny Webb Aprilia + 29.222s
14. Jonas Folger Aprilia + 29.396s
15. Randy Krummenacher Aprilia + 29.461s
16. Johann Zarco Aprilia + 29.709s
17. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia + 31.251s
18. Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia + 32.482s
19. Luis Salom Aprilia + 58.333s
20. Michael Ranseder Aprilia + 58.485s
21. Tomoyoshi Koyama Loncin +1m19.017s
22. Jasper Iwema Honda +1m23.621s
23. Jakub Kornfeil Loncin +1m23.731s
24. Brad Gross Yamaha + 1 lap
25. Luca Vitali Aprilia + 1 lap
26. Luca Marconi Aprilia + 1 lap
27. Andrew Lawson Honda + 1 lap
28. Levi Day Honda + 1 lap
