Aprilia’s Andrea Iannone took victory at the Catalunya Grand Prix in Spain, in an exciting battle, which continued long after the race was finished. Both Iannone and Simon fought for the top podium position for most of the 125cc race, by the second last lap it looked almost certain that Simon would take victory at his home grand prix. However when Simon crossed the line to mark the beginning of the last lap he prematurely began to celebrate his race win, Ongnetta Team I.S.P.A’s Iannone seized the opportunity to pass Simon and was able to hold his advantage for the last lap and cross the line in first position (his third race win of the season). Simon was relegated to fourth position before he realised that there was one more lap of the race, he was then forced to fight for a podium position. Jack and Jones Team’s Nico Terol crossed the finish line behind Iannone to stand on the second step of the podium. Simon reached the finish line at exactly the same time as his team-mate Sergio Gadea, Simon thought he had secured the third step of the podium however officials examined the photo finish and eventually granted the last podium place to Gadea.
Iannone’s teammate Jonas Folger, fought for a podium position but had to eventually settle for sixth position in front of Stefan Bradl. Sandro Corteste and Randy Krummenacher rounded out the top ten. Julian Simon now leads the championship on 84 points followed closely by teammate Bradley Smith on 82.5 points, whilst the race win allowed Iannone to maintain third place in the championship with 71.5 points. Aprilia has been able to increase the manufactures championship lead to 137.5 points.
