Aoyama gets payback at Jerez

From motogp.com

The Gran Premio bwin.com de España on Sunday saw a brilliant battle between four riders at the front of the 250cc race, with Scot Racing Team’s Hiroshi Aoyama ultimately emerging on top, holding off the advances of Álvaro Bautista right at the end.

The lead exchanged hands continuously throughout the race between Aoyama, Bautista and Metis Gilera’s World Champion Marco Simoncelli – the Italian falling away slightly in the final laps to eventually come home third.

As was the case in the 125cc and MotoGP races a Spanish rider who started on pole crashed out to the dismay of the huge home crowd, as Álex Debón (Aeroport Castello-Blusens) hit the deck when running in sixth place, with 16 laps to go.

Aoyama outfought Bautista on the very last corner, the Japanese rider beating the Spaniard in his home race just as the Aprilia man had done to the Honda equipped Aoyama last week at Motegi.

Aoyama now holds the championship lead by four points from Mapfre Aspar rider Bautista.

In the 125cc race, Bancaja Aspar’s Bradley Smith earned his first ever win on the 50th time of asking in spectacular style.

Normally not a great starter Smith got away brilliantly, taking the holeshot and immediately building up a good lead at the front. By the midway point in the race the 18-year-old from England had given himself an 18-second advantage, riding a lonely race to eventually cross the line 13 seconds ahead of the chasing pack for his maiden GP triumph.

There was heartbreak for poleman and home rider Julián Simón who suffered a nasty highside on lap five when running in second place and was unable to remount much to the disappointment of the massive Spanish crowd.

Before Simón’s mishap, an accident on the first lap for series leader Andrea Iannone (Ongetta Team I.S.P.A) meant Smith went unchallenged en route to victory, the Briton closing to within one point of Iannone in the standings. The Italian got back on to complete the race in 19th place.

Behind Smith there was a superb race-long battle for the podium with his team-mate Sergio Gadea eventually edging out Marc Márquez (Red Bull KTM) by just 0.029 secs. to make it a great day for the Spanish team and for those two Spanish riders in front of the home fans.

A special mention must go to Jonas Folger (Ongetta Team I.S.P.A) who came from 35th on grid to fight for the podium in the final stages, only to crash on the penultimate lap.

Danny Kent bettered Sturla Fagerhaug to win a superb and thankfully slightly less dramatic second Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race at Jerez on Sunday.

The blustery Spanish wind still contributed to a number of falls but this time Daijiro Hiura learnt from Saturday's error and came home third ahead of Florian Marino.

On Saturday, 17-year-old Norwegian Fagerhaug benefited from a restart following a two-rider crash and pulled through to win an incredible six-lap race ahead of Mathew Scholtz and Kent.