125cc: Simon dominates wet Le Mans

The Spaniard made the most of the difficult conditions by going from seventh on the grid to second within the opening lap, hunting down and forcing Nicolas Terol to make a mistake two laps later to take the lead, and then opening an unassailable lead over the rest of the field.

In the end Simon won by a massive 27 seconds, a gap that remained more or less constant for the entire second half of the event.

But that wasn't the only highlight of the race: in the space of 24 laps, where the slippery surface caused more than twenty crashes, 15-year-old German Jonas Folger took his Ongetta Aprilia to an outstanding second place, in only his ninth grand prix, after starting 16th on the grid.

Sergio Gadea snatched third from Aspar Aprilia teammate Bradley Smith with three laps to go, after the Briton had to give way to Folger midway through the race.

Folger's teammate Takaaki Nakagami was another rider making an excellent impression, by finishing fifth after starting a lowly 31st.

Dominique Aegerter, who crashed his Ajo Derbi when the race was at its half-way point, managed to keep sixth place over previous series leader Andrea Iannone, who crashed his Ongetta Aprilia in the opening lap and to start over in last place, 23 seconds behind second last at the beginning of lap two.

Efren Vazquez had a steady race with his Derbi to end up eighth, ahead of Terol, who crashed his Jack&Jones Aprilia once more on lap 18 while fifth. Lorenzo Zanetti (Ongetta Aprilia) completed the top ten.

Only 15 riders took the chequered flag out of 33 starters. Among the crashers are Simone Corsi (Aprilia), Tomoyoshi Koyama (Loncin), Scott Redding (Aprilia) Stefan Bradl (Aprilia), and Joan Olive (Derbi), whose crash caught out pole-position man Marc Marquez (KTM).

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider              Bike      Time
 1.  Julian Simon       Aprilia   47m08.273s
 2.  Jonas Folger       Aprilia   +  27.084s
 3.  Sergio Gadea       Aprilia   +  30.916s
 4.  Bradley Smith      Aprilia   +  31.530s
 5.  Takaaki Nakagami   Aprilia   +1m09.235s
 6.  D.Aegerter         Derbi     +1m12.223s
 7.  Andrea Iannone     Aprilia   +1m13.063s
 8.  Efrén Vazquez      Derbi     +1m19.912s
 9.  Nicolas Terol      Aprilia   +1m40.036s
10.  Lorenzo Zanetti    Aprilia   +1m42.700s
11.  Esteve Rabat       Aprilia   +1m59.326s
12.  Sandro Cortese     Derbi     + 1 Lap
13.  Jasper Iwema       Honda     + 1 Lap
14.  Gregory Di Carlo   Honda     + 1 Lap
15.  R.Krummenacher     Aprilia   + 2 Laps

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider              Bike      Laps
     Lorenzo Savadori   Aprilia    16
     Stefan Bradl       Aprilia    14
     Scott Redding      Aprilia    13
     Tomoyoshi Koyama   Loncin     10
     Luca Vitali        Aprilia    10
     Cameron Beaubier   KTM         8
     Lukas Sembera      Aprilia     8
     Marc Marquez       KTM         8
     Johann Zarco       Aprilia     8
     Sturla Fagerhaug   KTM         6
     Joan Olive         Derbi       5
     Pol Espargaro      Derbi       5
     Daniel Webb        Aprilia     4
     Steven Le Coquen   Honda       4
     Simone Corsi       Aprilia     2
     Alexis Masbou      Loncin      2
     Cyril Carrillo     Honda       1
     Luca Marconi       Aprilia     0

FASTEST LAP: Smith, 1m56.188s on lap 24