Aspar praise for title-winner Simón

Julián Simón’s 125cc championship win on Sunday in Australia gave the Aspar team their third World title, adding to the success stories of Álvaro Bautista in 2006 and Gabor Talmacsi in 2007, much to the understandable delight of team boss Jorge Martínez.

Speaking to motogp.com after the Spanish Bancaja Aspar rider had wrapped up the single cylinder title with a great win in Australia, Martínez remarked, “We are obviously very happy and very satisfied with the win. Things always seem to go well for us in Australia as we won the 125cc title here in 2006 with Álvaro (Bautista) and Julián rode superbly here.”

Asked about what it had been like for the team to have Simón battling against his team-mate Bradley Smith for the title over the course of the season, the Aspar chief replied, “It has been a good, clean battle. Things were different in 2007 for example with the strong rivalry between Gabor Talmacsi and Héctor Faubel when things were more complicated for us. In this race in Australia though it was another tough, but clean fight between the two riders, so we have to congratulate Bradley and Julián for the way they rode.”

On the subject of Simón courageous approach to the battle with Smith, as he took the race win and the title on the last lap with a great overtaking move, to bounce back from his crash and 12th place at Estoril in the previous round, Martínez added, “I thought if he could take him anywhere it would be there and Julián is a rider who can brake very well.”

“To come from Portugal where he crashed he could have conserved the result in second place, or he could have gone for it, which is what he did, so that says a lot about him. He wanted to win the title by winning he race.”