Smith wins second race of season

British youngster Bradley Smith has won his second race of the season, elevating him to the championship lead by 3.5 points and staking his claim as a genuine championship contender. Smith won the frantic Mugello race from Spain’s Nico Terol with Smith’s Bancaja Aspar teammate and fellow title challenger Julian Simon finishing a hard fought third on an ailing Aprilia. 

It was Simon who led the pack off the line ahead of Scott Redding and the newly painted bright yellow bike of Andrea Iannone. The opening laps were defined by aggressive moves as eight riders fought hard in the lead pack.

Down the main straight riders were as many as four wide as the 125’s scrambled for position, the long Mugello straight meant that the leader over the line was rarely the leader out of turn one, with Simon, Terol and Iannone swapping position with typical junior class recklessness.  

On lap five the Bancajar Aspar riders pounced, as they swarmed like angry wasps into turn one Smith dove around the outside of the pack, from sixth to second, while teammate Simon slide smoothly down the inside into the lead.

Alexis Masbou’s bad season continued, mechanical issues on the Chinese Loncin forcing the Frenchman out on lap five.

The Iannone show continued at the front, this time with co-star Smith who dove to the lead at the start of lap six, but a wild dive from Iannone round the outside saw the bright yellow machine take a very ragged, but effective lead.

Iannone’s luck would soon run out though, and less than a lap later Iannone’s chain divorced from the sprocket, slowing the bike dramatically. The failure was fortunate for Smith, who immediately inherited a full second lead as Iannone’s slowing Ongetta held up the swarm of riders behind.

The fight for second was the left to Smith’s teammate Simon ahead of Scott Redding, Terol, Danny Webb, Marc(y marc) Marquez, Zarco and Stefan Bradl.

Joan Olive took out another rider for the second race in a row, this time raising the ire of teammate Efren Vazquez.

Danny Webb managed to climb to fourth before his front tyre had an unpleasant encounter with one of Mugello’s bumps, forcing the young Brit into the pebbles.

Meanwhile Julian Simon and Nico Terol had gapped Redding and crew in fourth by 3.5 seconds, and caught up to Smith ahead. With rain sprinkling Smith made the wise decision to spend a few laps following the duo, but soon jumped back into the lead ahead of Terol, and began eking out an advantage over Simon.

With Simon looking good for third, the biggest battle of the race was for fourth place with Espagaro, Cortese, Redding, Marquez and Zarco battling each other with typical vigour. The five riders maintained their battle right until the final corner, when Cortese, in an effort to push hard and avoid the slip stream, over cooked his exit out of the final corner and crashed.

Up ahead though it was a solid ride from Smith, who never really looked like losing in the final phase of the race, eventually finishing two tenths clear of Terol, with a slowing Simon on an ailing Aprilia in third.

The minor spots were filled by the sole remaining Team Derbi rider Pol Espagaro, Marquez and Zarco ahead of Scott Redding, Stefan Bradl, rookie Lorenzo Savadori, and the remounted Simoni Cortese.

Smith now leads the championship by 3.5 points from teammate Julian Simon.