Smith takes championship lead with second win

Sunday, 31 May 2009

Bancaja Aspar’s Bradley Smith earned the second victory of his career and his second of the season in Italy to snatch the lead in the 125cc championship.

An exciting 125cc contest at the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice saw Briton Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar) take victory, holding off a strong challenge from Spaniard Nico Terol (Jack & Jones Team) on the last lap to take maximum points and the lead in the standings.

After morning rain the track dried relatively quickly and allowed for a highly competitive contest with Smith, Terol and Julián Simón (Bancaja Aspar) pulling away in the second half of the race to fill the podium. Smith eventually crossed the line 0.216 ahead of Terol, with Simón conceding the championship lead as he trailed his Aspar team-mate by seven seconds.

The unfortunate Andrea Iannone (Ongetta Team I.S.P.A.) dropped out due to a technical fault on lap six when in second place, to disappoint the home crowd, as the Italian’s recent difficult spell continued.

Behind the front three an intriguing fight for fourth place was won by Pol Espargaró (Derbi Racing Team) as Sandro Cortese (Ajo Interwetten) crashed on the last lap, whilst young Spaniard Marc Márquez (Red Bull KTM) finished less then a second behind his compatriot Espargaró.

Johann Zarco (WTR San Marino) was sixth in just his fifth Grand Prix, with the top ten completed by Scott Redding (Blusens Aprilia), Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing), Lorenzo Zavadori (Fontana Racing) and Cortese who remounted to take some points.

There were crashes and DNFs, meanwhile, for the likes Danny Webb (Degraaf Grand Prix), Joan Olivé (Derbi Racing Team) and Efrén Vázquez (Derbi Racing Team).