Simón hoping to take advantage of first match point

Bancaja Aspar’s Julián Simón has his first chance to wrap up the 125cc title this weekend at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal and he is certainly talking a good game ahead of the final phase of what has been a superb 2009 campaign.

Even if Simón wins the single cylinder Estoril race on Sunday he has to rely on Nico Terol finishing no higher than ninth and Bradley Smith finishing no higher than fifth, but he is understandably in a positive frame of mind ahead of the trip westwards across the Iberian peninsular to the Atlantic coast.

The Spaniard stated, “I arrive in Portugal as the championship leader, in a very comfortable position and fortunately with a chance to win the title, even if it will be pretty difficult. My main aim is to finish the race in the best possible position so I can head to Australia and Malaysia feeling relaxed. I will be fighting my hardest to win the race though, because I like the track and it is close to home.”

“There will be lots of people making the trip from my hometown to support me. Anyway, we’ll have to assess the situation during the weekend and see what is possible, working hard to make sure we have a good set-up for Sunday.”

On the venue for this weekend’s crucial racing, Simón added, “Estoril is a track which I really like. We did a test there in February and it was a good start to the 2009 preseason. I got a great feeling on the bike and we were therefore able to mark good laptimes, so I went away very motivated.”