The final season of 250's promised to feature the usual suspects : 2008 world champion Marco Simoncelli stayed to defend his title, Alvaro Bautista was looking to bring the crown back to Spain and follow up on his 2006 125cc world title. Hector Barbera needed to put in a more consitent performance and be less crazy if he wanted to have an outright shot at the final 250cc World Championship.the influx from 125's was rather small appart from the 2008 world champion Mike DiMeglio who partnered Bautista at Mapfre Aspar's team. Mattia Pasini, Thomas Luthi, Alex Debon were still there as well as Hiroshi Aoyama who joined the Scot Honda team after KTM decided to pull out of 250cc racing.
Qatar was won by Barbera flanked by Frenchman Jules Cluzel who took a stunning 2nd place and rookie DiMeglio in 3d. Simoncelli's defence would start at round two after sitting out the opener due to injury. However, a flat front tyre prevented him from getting a points score and so he started the season exactly the same as one year earlier : 0 points after two races. At Jerez, an exciting race ended with a tussle between homie Bautista and Aoyama on the Honda. The Japanese rider managed to stay in front and clinched a surprise victory whereas Simoncelli scored his first points of the season coming home in 3d.
The 2008 champ won in France and got beaten to the line by Pasini in their home race at Mugello but he crashed in Catalunya were Bautista managed to clinch his first victory of the season. Assen was a turning point in the season. An exciting battle between Bautista and again Aoyama ended right before the start of the final lap when the Spaniard misjudged an error by Hiro and ran into the back of the Japanese. The latter managed to stay in the saddle but Alvaro's race was over. Even with some damage to his bike, Aoyama brought it home safely and recorded his second victory of 2009. A consistent run of finishes and some very strong outings helped the Japanese to lead the world championship at this stage with Bautista trailing him by 13 points. A string of 6 consecutive top 4 finishes kept him firmly in the running for the title but Marco started to close in during mid season. 4 wins, 1 fourth place and one DNF brought him within striking distance of Aoyama. Aspar's leading rider managed to stay in touch as well with 5 podium finishes and 1 DNF.
A very consistent Barbera secured his second win of the season in Misano and kept his title hopes alive. Bautista's crash in Portugal would start a string of lacklustre showings and with it an end of his title aspirations. It was clear that SuperSic and Hiro would battle to the end for title glory. Hector's chances of running away with the title would depend more on the errors made by these two than on his own strong performances. In general, he was there but only during a few races he was able to keep up and fight for victory with the Italian and Japanse. Winning in Australia, Marco closed in a further 16 points and was trailing only by 12 with two races to go. Aoyama was untouchable in Sepang and regained 9 more points on the Italian to lead by 21 before the final race.
Assen 2009 : Bautista runs into the back of Aoyama when the latter makes an error braking into the Geert Timmer chicane on the penultimate lap. The image summarizes the season of both riders for me. The title favourite crashing again in a desperate attempt to get the better of the rider who rode an inferior bike but got the most out of it and managed to keep both wheels on the tarmac when his fiercest rivals made costly mistakes. Aoyama clinches 4 victories on his way to the title and Bautista only 2 to end up 4th in the final standings. Considering the fact that Hiro managed only 7 podiums compared to 10 for Simoncelli and 10 for Bautista, these statistics are examplory for the 2009 250cc World Championship with a true outsider beating the two big favourites. The Last Man Standing!
Exceptional performance
Jules Cluzel's 2nd place in Qatar. He just came from out of nowhere to battle it out with Barbera and finish on the podium. Before this season, he ran in the midfield and suddenly he's found the pace to run at the front. He ended up 12th but should have been higher up in the ranking if it weren't for some mistakes and crashes when he was running inside the top ten on a number of occasions. Since we are moving on to the Moto2 World championship for 2010, he will join Forward racing in a bid to better the 2009 season and who knows where he might end up in November 2010...
11th place would suffice for an historic end of an historic era but the drama unfolded even before mid race. Simoncelli was doing what he needed to do : leading and trying to grab that victory. Aoyama was comfortably riding in the leading pack when he ran wide into the gravel trap and lost a lot of time getting out of the sand not wanting to drop the bike. He regained in 11th place but there didn't seem to be much damage since his lap times were fast enough to close in on the riders in front of him and provide himself with some breathing space. A couple of laps from the end, the title was decided when Simoncelli crashed out of the lead. Barbera went on to win his 3d race of the season and even jumped Simoncelli to take second place in the standings.
Additional facts & figures
- The average margin between first and second was 3,961 seconds.
- 6 races out of 16 ended with less than 1,000 seconds covering winner and runner up.
- The biggest difference was at Le Mans : 18,128 seconds.
- The smallest gap was at Misano : 0,040 seconds.
- The season started with 28 regular riders.
- The field was made of 19 Aprilias, 7 Hondas and 2 Gileras.
Assen 2009 : Bautista runs into the back of Aoyama when the latter makes an error braking into the Geert Timmer chicane on the penultimate lap. The image summarizes the season of both riders for me. The title favourite crashing again in a desperate attempt to get the better of the rider who rode an inferior bike but got the most out of it and managed to keep both wheels on the tarmac when his fiercest rivals made costly mistakes. Aoyama clinches 4 victories on his way to the title and Bautista only 2 to end up 4th in the final standings. Considering the fact that Hiro managed only 7 podiums compared to 10 for Simoncelli and 10 for Bautista, these statistics are examplory for the 2009 250cc World Championship with a true outsider beating the two big favourites. The Last Man Standing!
Jules Cluzel's 2nd place in Qatar. He just came from out of nowhere to battle it out with Barbera and finish on the podium. Before this season, he ran in the midfield and suddenly he's found the pace to run at the front. He ended up 12th but should have been higher up in the ranking if it weren't for some mistakes and crashes when he was running inside the top ten on a number of occasions. Since we are moving on to the Moto2 World championship for 2010, he will join Forward racing in a bid to better the 2009 season and who knows where he might end up in November 2010...
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