Julian Simon: First race, first podium on Suter MMX

In a fantastic debut race on his new Suter MMX, Julian Simon rode to an impressive second place at the French Moto 2 Grand Prix. The reigning 125 cc World Champion had qualified in ninth position and started from the third row of the grid, but thrilled the crowd with an amazing hunt in the race that took him from tenth to second position in only seven laps.

German Stefan Bradl, who was down in 35th place after a crash in qualifying, showed similar speed and determination when he bounced back to take ninth place. The young Bavarian rider passed more than half the field on his way, which was considered to be almost impossible in such a highly competitive field with the same amount of horsepower for everybody.

Julián Simón on Suter-MMX

Not quite as lucky was Shoya Tomizawa. The Japanese ace first ran off the track when he got hit by a crashed bike, and then crashed only a few laps later when he took too many risks trying to recover lost ground. As a result, Tomizawa lost his world championship lead to race winner Toni Elias.

Shoya Tomizawa

“We knew about Julian’s potential, but we didn’t expect things to go that well – second place in his first race on our bike is sensational,” said Eskil Suter, CEO of Suter Racing Technology. “He was very strong, but he also was clever enough not to push too hard and to risk a crash. It’s a shame that Jules Cluzel went down after briefly leading the race, because he was able to keep the pace of Toni Elias quite easily. He then tried a bit too hard in front of his home crowd, and obviously, he is very disappointed. Dominique Aegerter also crashed, because it is really tough when you are down in 30th place on the grid – there is a lot of traffic in the first corners! When we consider this it is almost unbelievable what Stefan Bradl did today. He truly achieved the impossible!”

Stefan Bradl passing more than half the field

Result race: 1. Toni Elias / SPA / Moriwaki / 43:29.277 min. 2. Julian Simon / SPA / Suter / + 1,336 sek. 3. Simone Corsi / ITA / Motobi / + 2,049 sek. 9. Stefan Bradl / GER / Suter MMX / 23,503 sek. 10. Roberto Rolfo / ITA / Suter MMX / 23,687 sek. 11. Scott Redding / GBR / Suter MMX / 23,959 sek. 15. Claudio Corti / ITA / Suter MMX / 28,765 sek. 18. Arne Tode / GER / Suter MMX / 34,789 sek. 20. Mike Di Meglio / FRA / Suter MMX / 43,522 sek. 23. Robertino Pietri / VEN / Suter MMX / 59,692 sek. 27. Vladimir Leonov / RUS / Suter MMX / 1:16.528 min. 30. Dominique Aegerter / SUI / Suter MMX / 1:20.977 min. DNF Jules Cluzel / FRA / Suter MMX DNF Shoya Tomizawa / JAP / Suter MMX DNF Hector Faubel / SPA / Suter MMX

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