Metis Gilera's Marco Simoncelli won Sunday's 250cc race in Indianapolis.
Marco Simoncelli will go down in the record books for winning the first and the last 250cc World Championship race in the U.S. at this year’s Red Bull Indianapolis GP. The Italian rider put in a dominant performance winning the race by just 1.9 seconds over series points leader, Hiroshi Aoyama.
“Today it was a very difficult race,” said the charismatic Italian. “Yesterday I crash three times and I wasn’t sure if my set-up would work for today. But today in the warm-up we made some modifications. For the race it was great today, it is wonderful to ride. I tried to push more every lap and he [Aoyama] stay so close to me. On the last lap I tried to do 100% and more. It’s unbelievable to win in Indianapolis. I’m very happy.”
At the start of the 26-lap race it was France’s Jules Cluzel out in front followed by fellow countryman Mike Di Meglio, Simoncelli, Aoyama, and Alex Debon. Simoncelli would move into the lead after Cluzel’s race ended on Lap 3 with an unknown problem.
Aoyama would hound Simoncelli for the entire distance of the race but just didn’t have enough speed anywhere on the track to make a pass. Third today was Alvaro Bautista, who like Simoncelli will be making the jump to the MotoGP class next year with the Spainard signing a contract with the Rizla Suzuki squad.
“It hasn’t been a good weekend for us if we are talking about the world title,” said the third place finisher, Bautista. “Simoncelli is closer to us and Aoyama is now further ahead. I had a lot of problems in practice, just like at Brno where I didn’t feel at all comfortable on the bike. I didn’t manage to find that decent setting that I needed. We’ll see if at the next few races we can work better in practice in order to have a set-up ready for Sunday.”
Fourth would go to Meglio with Roberto Locatelli finishing fifth one spot in front of Hector Barbera.
Red Bull Indianapolis GP 250cc Race Results:
Hiroshi Aoyama trailed Simoncelli for the entire race but wasn't fast enough to make a pass on the Italian.
1. Marco Simoncelli, Gilera
2. Hiroshi Aoyama, Honda
3. Alvaro Bautista, Aprilia
4. Mike Du Meglio, Aprilia
5. Roberto Locatelli, Gilera
6. Hector Barbera, Aprilia
7. Lukas Pesek, Aprilia
8. Hector Faubel, Honda
9. Thomas Luthi, Aprilia
10. Karel Abraham, Aprilia
11. Raffaele De Rosa, Honda
12. Alex Baldolini, Aprilia
13. Valentin Debise, Honda
14. Axel Pons, Aprilia
15. Vladimir Leonov, Aprilia
