Smith secures maiden 125 win

Added on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Bradley Smith secured his first career win in Jerez on Sunday to cap an impressive weekend for the Brits in the 125cc Grand Prix.

The 18-year-old from Oxford finished a massive 13.524 seconds ahead of his Bancaja Aspar Aprilia teammate Sergio Gadea to secure his maiden victory in MotoGP racing in four years and only his third race with the factory Aprilia team.

Smith got off to a blistering start from the lights and never looked back from then and by the midway point, was riding a massive 18 seconds ahead of the chasing pack.

The Aprilia rider was aided by the crash of pole-starter Julian Simon on lap five and a poor performance from championship leader Andrea Iannone but that didn’t detract from a truly dominate display.

It was a good weekend for the Brits, with Scott Redding finishing in fourth position and Danny Webb finishing in eighth place.

Speaking to BBC Sport following the race, even Smith seemed shocked by such a dominant display.

“You watch these races in years gone by when people won by 15-20 seconds and think ‘how is this possible?’, so for me to do it today was unbelievable,” he claimed.

“To keep seeing those seconds going up on the pit board, words can’t describe it.

“The bike was working so well, I was just keeping my head down lap after lap. It was a freaky race and as the race went on, the wind was getting worse, so I was thankful I had a bit of a gap.

“I think it was just meant to be my day today.”

Smith now sits second in the 125 championship on 36.5 points, one point behind Iannone

Pos	Rider	Nat	Team	Time
1	Bradley Smith	GBR	Bancaja Aspar Aprilia	41:49.556
2	Sergio Gadea	ESP	Bancaja Aspar Aprilia	+13.524
3	Marc Marquez	ESP	Red Bull KTM Motosport	+13.553
4	Scott Redding	GBR	Blusens Aprilia	+14.251
5	Efren Vazquez	ESP	Derbi Racing Team	+14.758
6	Sandro Cortese	GER	Ajo Interwetten	+15.545
7	Pol Esparagaro	ESP	Derbi Racing Team	+15.556
8	Danny Webb	GBR	Degraaf Grand Prix	+17.772
9	Dominique Aegerter	SWI	Ajo Interwetten	+18.960
10	Nicolas Terol	ESP	Jack & Jones Team	+19.053