Cloudy skies at the Cathedral of Motorcycle Racing thankfully failed to open on Saturday morning, providing a dry race for the Dutch TT.

Unlike last year's 125cc race, this time around an uninterrupted race could take place, with an entertaining battle for the win.

Sergio Gadea made the most of the race to take his first win of 2009, also taking advantage of a coming together between Julián Simón and Nico Terol. The latter was later penalised for the move, putting Bradley Smith onto the podium. Smith had crossed the line fourth after a tough battle with Andrea Iannone. Despite its late nature, the rostrum was an all-Bancaja Aspar affair, the first time that it has happened since Valencia 2007.

The trio thus celebrated the Aspar team's 200th podium with by ‘going Dutch', sharing the spoils amongst themselves. Gadea had the honour of crossing the line first, but Simón and Smith have all placed their part in a successful start to 2009. Simón rode the fastest lap of the race with a 1'45.537 just three laps in, and could have pushed Gadea more had it not been for the last lap incident.

“I am sincerely very happy with the win, as I haven't taken victory since the Qatar race at the start of last year”, commented Gadea. “Everything is going well for us, and the team are working to perfection. I think that we are growing and growing, and we have won because of consistency. Today I won, but the important thing will be to stay at the front for every race. It was a beautiful race, and I had an intense battle with Simón and Terol. I lost a bit of time with Iannone, but I recovered quickly, and then I rode an intelligent race to wait for my moment."

“This circuit has never been good to me, so this result is a positive. I am very happy, and have to thank the team for the effort they made. We had some doubts about the tyre choice, and in the end we put the soft rubber on. Thanks to them we were a lot more comfortable for the whole race”, said Simon. “Gadea and Nico's bikes were a little faster, so it was tough to try and keep up. I tried to keep behind to stop them passing me back. I was braking as hard as possible, but Nico was as well, in the end we went parallel and he went straight on. On Thursday we were warned that running off the escape route would result in a penalty. This is another good result for us, a strong second place.”

“It has been a difficult race, as at the start I couldn't get up to the front to try and break away. My plan was to wait five or six laps behind the group, watching how the race developed. Gadea passed Iannone and dug a gap, but when I tried to pass we started our fight”, said Smith. “I had a great feeling with the Aprilia at all times, although I would have liked to have been fighting amongst the top three in the race. It is a pity, but when the races turn out like that there's not much more that you can do. I'm still feeling good about the podium, and that we are still up at the top of the standings. In summary, it has been a successful weekend, so I'm happy with the result.”

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