Andrea Iannone has won the 125cc Catalunya Grand Prix after Julian Simon threw the win away by celebrating victory a lap too soon.
The two Aprilia riders exchanged the lead countless of times during the 22-lap race,
but Spaniard Simon managed to open a 0.3s gap over the Italian by the beginning of the penultimate lap.
Just as the riders were starting the final lap, Aspar's Simon began celebrating in front of his home crowd, while his crew was frantically pointing at the pit board indicating one lap was still to go, and Italian Iannone (Team I.S.P.A.) was taking advantage of the mishap.
But the two riders had been just ahead (1.7s) of a group of four other riders fighting for the last podium position. Simon was thus swallowed by that group, and took some big risks when trying to salvage at least a place in the top three.
In the end he did manage to take the lead in the championship by ending up third, beating team-mate Sergio Gadea and Red Bull KTM's Marc Marquez by a whisker. The Jack&Jones Aprilia of Nicolas Terol took second, 2.2s behind Iannone.
Jonas Folger (I.S.P.A. Aprilia) finished sixth, ahead of Stefan Bradl (Kiefer Aprilia), Bradley Smith (Aspar Aprilia), Sandro Cortese (Ajo Derbi), and Randy Krummenacher (Degraaf Aprilia) completing the top ten.
CLASSIFIED:
Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Andrea Iannone Aprilia 41m10.494s
2. Nicolas Terol Aprilia + 2.245s
3. Sergio Gadea Aprilia + 2.330s
4. Julian Simon Aprilia + 2.331s
5. Marc Marquez KTM + 2.356s
6. Jonas Folger Aprilia + 2.531s
7. Stefan Bradl Aprilia + 10.795s
8. Bradley Smith Aprilia + 10.824s
9. Sandro Cortese Derbi + 14.984s
10. R.Krummenacher Aprilia + 15.089s
11. Scott Redding Aprilia + 16.427s
12. Esteve Rabat Aprilia + 16.515s
13. Johann Zarco Aprilia + 27.455s
14. Joan Olive Derbi + 27.712s
15. Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia + 28.411s
16. Simone Corsi Aprilia + 33.697s
17. Tomoyoshi Koyama Loncin + 42.581s
18. Cameron Beaubier KTM + 48.847s
19. Alberto Moncayo Aprilia + 49.532s
20. D.Agerter Derbi + 49.772s
21. Jasper Iwema Honda +1m02.666s
22. Sturla Fagerhaug KTM +1m15.215s
23. Johnny Rosell Aprilia +1m21.568s
24. Luca Marconi Aprilia +1m37.919s
25. Jordi Dalmau Honda +1 Lap
26. Luca Vitali Aprilia +2 Laps
NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:
Rider Bike Laps
Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 16
Luis Salom Honda 13
Daniel Webb Aprilia 11
Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia 10
Pol Espargaro Derbi 5
Alexis Masbou Loncin 5
Lukas Sembera Aprilia 4
Efren Vazquez Derbi 1
FASTEST LAP: Marquez, 1m51.175s on lap 7