Morales first CEV Moto2 Champion, Axel Pons takes victory in final race

Carmelo Morales took the cautious approach to finish the battle for the first ever Spanish Moto2 title at Jerez yesterday. Morales already came to the last race of the season with a healthy 21-points lead over Kev Coghlan and needed only a 12th place to take the crown. He finally finished the race in 7th place, just ahead of championship rival Kev Coghlan, enough for Morales to become the Moto2 champion.

The battle at the front wasn’t quite so cautious as Axel Pons, Jordi Torres and Roman Ramos fought for the victory until the last corner. In the end it was world championship regular Axel Pons who snatched the win, his first victory in the Spanish Championship, ahead of Torres and Ramos. The second place for Torres also meant that he took the runner-up spot in the championship from Kev Coghlan.

Axel Pons: I am very satisfied with today’s result. Two years ago on this circuit I had a very serious accident after which it took me a long and hard time to recover and be able to get back on a bike. To return to the Spanish Championship and to Jerez has been special for me and somehow I feel that with today’s victory I collected part of the debt it owed me. The aim for these last two races of the season was to gain more experience and I think we’ve done that. Our main goal is to be up front in the world championship, but to win in the Spanish championship is rewarding, because aside from the other world championship regulars who participate here, the CEV riders have shown that they are very fast. Now I can’t wait to getback on the bike in Jerez next week to continue working and prepare for the next season in the world championship.”

Carmelo Morales: Firstly I want to congratulate the team, because we have achieved our goal and this is because they knew how to keep the focus for those last six races where we couldn’t make any errors and the team did that perfectly. In the race I saw that some of my rivals were in front, but I didn’t want to get into the fight to avoid making a mistake. I had a bit of a gap to the riders in front and behind me. In such a short season where we’ve also had the bad luck not to score in the first race of the year and my back injury, we had to really fight to be competitive. In the end all the work was worth it and now we have to enjoy the title, because it’s a big weight of our minds.”