Special guest Simón reflects on championship glory

Having wrapped up the 2009 125cc World Championship title last time out at Phillip Island, with a brilliant late win over his team-mate Bradley Smith in Australia, the new king of the single cylinder class Julián Simón was invited to join the stars of MotoGP in Thursday’s press conference in Malaysia.

The talented Spanish rider lined up alongside reigning premier class World Champion Valentino Rossi, former MotoGP title-winner Casey Stoner, former 250cc and 125cc World Champion Dani Pedrosa and another Spaniard Aleix Espargaró in the Sepang media centre, as he gave his views on what has been a remarkable season.

Asked to pick out his highlight from a superb 2009 campaign, Simón gave an answer which did not cause too many surprises as he looked back on the last round in Australia, saying, “Phillip Island was brilliant, to win the race and the championship right in the final moments, so that has been my best race of the year for sure.”

Setting himself high targets for the remaining pair of 2009 rounds Simón, added, “My objective is to finish first in these last two races and maintain a really good standard for the finish of the championship, but obviously I’m feeling good at the moment and I have enjoyed riding at Sepang on previous visits.”

With regard to the future Simón looked ahead to his 2010 participation in the new Moto2 category with Aspar, stating, “I’m really happy about going into this new category. I’m pleased that I will have the opportunity to get good results because I came down into 125cc this year to do that and now I have this chance again in the new class. I hope to stay strong, to have a competitive bike and to be a winner in Moto2. Although I will take things step-by-step eventually I want to get to MotoGP.”