Racing: the Spanish know their stuff

They say the Spanish know their onions - but it's a nation that also knows its motorcycles, something confirmed by a look at the 125cc World Championship as the 'little' bikes head for Australia's Phillip Island circuit from October 16-18.

While Julian Simon of the Bancaja Aspar team leads the standings with 214pts and comes to the Island as firm favourite for the 2009 title, he is one of four Spaniards in the current top five and six in the top 10.

Nico Terol, Pol Espargaro and Sergio Gadea are all among that front-running quartet, with Marc Marquez and Joan Olive not far behind them in a leading group of 10 rounded out by one Briton, one Italian and two German riders.

The 13 races this year (the 125s and 250s have one fewer than the MotoGP boys, who fly solo at Laguna Seca) have yielded no fewer than six different winners, Simon leading the way with four victories.

After two relatively low-key years in the quarter-litre class in 2007-08 - no poles, no podiums - Simon took the decision to step back, regroup and see what he could do as a more mature rider in the 125 class. With six poles and six fastest laps to his credit as well as those four wins, he's clearly stepped up to a different level on the Aspar Aprilia.

Success at Le Mans in round four was Simon's first since his early 125cc days in 2005, when he won the British round at Donington on a KTM - his only World Championship victory before this season. He has added further victories in Germany, Britain and at the San Marino round.

The numbers don't always add up, though: round 13 in Estoril, last time out, was decidedly unlucky for Julian as he crashed while leading by a comfortable five seconds and trailed in 12th.

No problem for Spanish fans: up stepped Pol Espargaro to claim the win in Portugal, his second of the season on the Spanish-built Derbi Racing Team machine to go with his maiden World Championship victory at Indianapolis two rounds previously.

The Espargaro name was much in evidence at that American meeting, thanks mainly to Pol's older brother Aleix, who made his MotoGP debut there as a stand-in for Mika Kallio on the Pramac Ducati while the Finn was subbing for our own Casey Stoner on the factory bike.

But it was Pol who claimed the headlines with his maiden win, though it wasn't the first time the younger brother had caught the eye. That happened on his World Championship debut as a wild-card entry in his home race, the Catalunya Grand Prix, in 2006, where he finished 13th and became, at the tender age of 15 and eight days, the youngest points-scorer in Championship history.

Espargaro Junior should really be coming to Phillip Island on the back of a hat-trick of race wins. Between those two successes in America and Portugal, he was dicing for the lead with Andrea Iannone's Aprilia at Misano when the two crashed out together on the final corner of the race, allowing Simon to romp home.

Estoril, by the way, was the 50th Grand Prix victory for the Derbi marque - a milestone previously reached only by Honda and Aprilia.

Terol and Gadea, both on Aprilia machinery, have notched up just one race win apiece this season, and the interloper among the Spaniards leading the way in the 125cc title race is England's Bradley Smith.

Like Espargaro, carrot-topped Smith has finally broken through this season for a maiden World Championship victory - and like Pol, Bradley promptly won again two rounds later.

Victory number one came in round three at Jerez and fittingly enough it was the Oxford lad's 50th Grand Prix start since making his debut on a Honda back in 2006, when he finished the season as Rookie of the Year - as Espargaro did the following season.

While Spain has rarely wanted for GP success, that Jerez day was a milestone for long-suffering British fans: it was the first Grand Prix win there for a British rider, and following Scott Redding's success in his home race in 2008 it was the first time in three decades that British riders had claimed at least one race win in two consecutive years.

Two rounds later Smith was on the top step of the podium once more, at Monza. That made Bradley the first Briton since the late, lamented Barry Sheene to win more than once in a season and the first rider from those shores to top the standings since Sheene himself had done so way back in 1979.

"The first race win in Spain felt great and this one did too but it was a lot more difficult," Smith said after his Monza victory. "I had to push at 100 percent all the way through the race and sometimes I was on the limit, but that is necessary to win a world championship race."

Even more essential to win a world championship, some would say, and while Bradley has snared four podium finishes since Monza he hasn't been able to add another win, leaving him with a 50.5pt deficit to Simon with just three rounds remaining including our own.

The rider who came out of the blocks like a shot from a gun is Andrea Iannone, winner of the opening two races in Qatar and Japan and again in Catalunya in round six - since when the Italian Aprilia ace has made just one visit to the podium in seven starts.

Putting these youngsters in Phillip Island context, none of the riders we have looked at has even been on the podium here, let alone won a race: Simon's best on 125cc machinery was fifth back in 2006, Smith's never been better than 16th, Espargaro was fifth last season and Iannone fourth.

Simon is the only one who can clinch the title with a good result at Phillip Island - and he would be the seventh Spaniard to do so since the great Angel Nieto started their 125cc Championship-winning tradition back in 1971.

But with the ambitious young blokes snapping at Simon's heels, that's far from a foregone conclusion in another intriguing season of 125cc competition.