France wins FIM Supermoto of Nations
Team France dominated the fifth edition of the FIM SuperMoto of Nations from beginning to end obtaining the Francesco Zerbi Trophy for the second time after their victory in Italy in 2007. Second was Team Italy, who did an excellent race after yesterday’s misfortune, and third was the German Junior Team. Finland was fourth tied in points with Germany.
Thierry Van Den Bosch, Thomas Chareyre and Aurelien Grelier could not do better scoring just seven points after the three races. VDB was a dominant winner in races one and three, while Chareyre finished second and first. The great surprise was French Grelier, who rode with the leading riders on both races finishing second and third respectively – the latter being France’s worst result.
Team Italy started the day not knowing if they would be able to race and when they were celebrating their second final position they could not even believe it. Davide Gozzini and Christian Ravaglia were both in the hospital yesterday night after suffering two unfortunate crashes during the qualifying races, but they were eventually able to ride for their country even in a lot of pain. The excellent performance of the three Italian riders took the country to the second step of the podium.
Germany Junior Team could not take the Francesco Zerbi Trophy back home but they succeeded in being third thanks to their consistency. The senior German Team instead was just fifth, tied in points with fourth classified Team Finland, as German Bernd Hiemer crashed during the first race and could not take part in the last and crucial heat.
Sixth was Team Great Britain thanks to the solid performance of Matthew Winstanley, who managed to ride at the front during his two races, Chris Hodgson and Richard Blakeman.
Team France Junior had also an outstanding weekend finishing seventh, being Alexis Marie Luce the big surprise after finishing third in both races.
Rannar Uusna, who injured his ankle yesterday during the Time Practice, was ready to race this morning and helped Team Estonia to finish eighth, tied in points with ninth classified Team Sweden. Team Czech Republic completed the top ten of the Nations Classification.
Team Brazil finished in a solid 12th position thanks to the consistent riding of Caue Aguiar, Rafael Fonseca and Juliano Meira.
Team Spain finished in the last 16th position as David Giménez broke his right collarbone during the warm up. However, Francesc Cucharrera got a solid 12th and 15th positions, while last year’s Open overall winner Ruben Retuerta was 12th and 23rd.
RACE 1 (Riders 1 & 2)
France was the clear dominant of race one being VDB the race winner followed by his compatriots Thomas Chareyre and Marie Luce from the French Junior Team. Starting from 17th, Chareyre was already eleventh at lap one and had to give his best to finish behind his teammate VDB, who dominated the race from beginning to end. Besides, Marie Luce did also an excellent race and went from fifth to third and kept such position until the end of the race.
Hermunen, who took the holeshot ahead of VDB and Winstanley, could only be fourth behind the three French riders. His teammate Kingelin could not finish the race as he was involved in a crash with Lazzarini in the second corner of the opening lap.
Gozzini, having a painful six stitches on his right arm after yesterday’s crash, succeeded in being fifth after an excellent recovery from position 19. His teammate Lazzarini recovered to eleventh after starting at the back of the pack due to the crash with the Finnish Kingelin.
German Künzel got a consistent sixth position for his country, but his teammate Hiemer crashed having only three laps to go and damaged his pelvis – he was a comfortable fourth until then. The multiple World Champion could not take part in the second race, failing to help Team Germany for the overall result.
British Winstanley did an excellent start in third position but he finished in an eventual seventh ahead of Vorlicek and Nastran. Completing the top ten was Danish Caprini.
Joannidis and Deitenbach of Germany Junior were 12th and 17th respectively, while Brazilian Fonseca got a solid 16th position.
Race 1 top ten: 1. Thierry van den Bosch (FRA, Aprilia), 19:56.542; 2. Thomas Chareyre (FRA, TM), +0:01.177; 3. Alexis Marie Luce (FRAj, Yamaha), +0:06.713; 4. Mauno Hermunen (FIN, Husqvarna), +0:07.768; 5. Davide Gozzini (ITA, TM), +0:17.747; 6. Juergen Künzel (GER, Aprilia), +0:21.791; 7. Matthew Winstanley (GBR, Honda), +0:23.971; 8. Petr Vorlicek (CZE, Suzuki), +0:24.846; 9. Uros Nastran (SLO, Husqvarna), +0:25.995; 10. Mikkel Caprani (DEN, Yamaha), +0:26.834;
Nations top ten: France, Italy, France Junior, Czech Republic, Germany Junior, Great Britain, Slovenia, Finland, Germany, Spain.
RACE 2 (Riders 2 & 3)
French Grelier took surprisingly the holeshot of race two and his teammate Thomas Chareyre was already third in the first lap despite starting again from 17th. Both Frenchmen rode at the front throughout the whole race and their compatriot Marie Luce from the Junior Team finished in a superb third final position after coming back from an initial seventh position.
Italian Lazzarini starred once more in an incredible race as he recovered from tenth to fourth. His teammate Ravaglia, who could finally race after dislocating his shoulder during yesterday’s qualifying session, followed his teammate’s steps and ended in a consistent seventh position.
Vorlicek, who is currently fifth in the UEM Open Championship, completed the top five, followed by German Künzel and Italian Ravaglia.
Class from Germany Junior did an excellent start in third position but he finally had to settle down for the eighth place, while his teammate Joannidis could only be 20th.
Estonian Nassar was ninth and completing the top ten was other German Hermann.
Aguiar from Team Brazil started in the eleventh position but could not follow the top ten riders’ rhythm and was just 15th.
Chanseaud from Team France Junior crashed in the sky section and could not take part in the last race.
Race 2 top ten: 1. Thomas Chareyre (FRA, TM), 19:56.648; ; 2. Aurelien Grelier (FRA, Honda), +0:03.707; 3. Alexis Marie Luce (FRAj, Yamaha), +0:04.865; 4. Ivan Lazzarini (ITA, Honda), +0:05.919; 5. Petr Vorlicek (CZE, Suzuki), +0:10.275; 6. Juergen Künzel (GER, Aprilia), +0:17.374; 7. Christian Ravaglia (ITA, Suzuki), +0:25.115; 8. Markus Class (GERj, Suzuki), +0:25.424; 9. Taavi Nassar (EST, TM), +0:36.497; 10. Michael Hermann (GER, Husqvarna), +0:37.652;
Nations top ten: France, Italy, Germany, German Junior, France Junior, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Finlad, Estonia, Sweden.
RACE 3 (Riders 3 & 1)
Race three started with Team France dominating the classification with a 21 point advantage over Team Italy. However the French riders wanted to complete their excellent weekend with a victory and VDB took the holeshot and led the race from beginning to end. His teammate Grelier was third after recovering from an initial 12th position.
Italian Gozzini amazed everybody with his final second position as he was still suffering from his 20cm cut on his right arm. His teammate Ravaglia finished seventh, which assured his country the final second position.
Class performed a superb race finishing third and helping the German Junior Team to secure the third step of the podium, while his teammate Deitenbach was just 15th. His compatriot Hermann from the Senior Team completed the top five, followed by British Winstanley.
Finnish Hermunen could only be ninth in race three as he crashed in the sky section and had to recover from the 19th position. Slovenian Nastran did a consistent race and completed the top ten after Hermunen.
Race 3: 1. Thierry van den Bosch (FRA, Aprilia), 20:01.398; ; 2. Davide Gozzini (ITA, TM), +0:04.793; 3. Aurelien Grelier (FRA, Honda), +0:07.157; 4. Markus Class (GERj, Suzuki), +0:07.931; 5. Michael Hermann (GER, Husqvarna), +0:09.225; 6. Matthew Winstanley (GBR, Honda), +0:15.178; 7. Christian Ravaglia (ITA, Suzuki), +0:17.983; 8. Mikkel Caprani (DEN, Yamaha), +0:18.534; 9. Mauno Hermunen (FIN, Husqvarna), +0:19.692; 10. Uros Nastran (SLO, Husqvarna), +0:21.398;
Nations Top Ten: France, Italy, Germany Junior, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, France Junior, Estonia, Sweden, Czech Republic.
