Gozzini tops Austrian GP
By TMX Archives on 28th Aug 08
FOLLOWING the heavy rain on Saturday, which disrupted the schedule, a bright sunny day characterised the final day of the World Super-moto Championship round at Greinbach in Austria. Ivan Lazzarini topped the S1 class from Bernd Hiemer and Sylvain Bidart.
The second S1 moto and the second S3 moto were not run following an accident in the early stages of the second S1 heat involving Kevin Berthome and Nestor Jorge. Berthome broke a foot and was taken to the hospital nearby for further checks while Jorge's injury was more serious.
After receiving medical care by specialized trauma doctors to stabilize his condition, Jorge was flown to the Graz Hospital by helicopter. Further examinations to evaluate his condition are currently in progress.
The organisers promptly decided not to run the remainder of the event programme.
Aprilia factory rider Lazzarini took his second win of the season, courtesy of an outstanding performance in the first moto. Bernd Hiemer was second and increased his Championship lead over Thierry Van den Bosch, who was a disappointing tenth as he crashed at the start of the race.
Sylvain Bidart completed the top three in the country where he contested his first GP (Melk 2005) and succeeded in taking his maiden podium (Melk 2006).
Lazzarini came out of a troubled start in first place as VdB, Jerome Giraudo and Eddy Seel all crashed. The latter retired from the race as it took him too much time to restart his bike. Lazzarini carried on in front until he passed the chequered flag while Hiemer crashed when he was making up ground on the Italian. Hiemer was an eventual second ahead of Bidart. Balducci was fourth and Giraudo fifth as the latter put together an impressive recovery after restarting the first lap in 18th place. VdB was ninth.
S2 CLASS
TM rider, Davide Gozzini, won a very close battle with current series leader, Adrien Chareyre, second despite starting from ninth on the grid. Gerald Delepine made it to the podium in third by winning the second race as Ales Hlad clinched a fourth place overall, his best result of the season.
Coming back from a serious wrist injury, Britain's Christian Iddon took fifth ahead of team-mate Luca Minutilli.
After a storming start in the opener, Gozzini and Beltrami were lapping together with the TM leading the Aprilia.
Beltrami made a small mistake and stalled the engine. Almost as soon as he rejoined the action, he crashed again and went to the pits for a quick fix, eventually finishing 18th.
Gozzini took the victory from Chareyre, who moved past Minutilli by exploiting a last lap mistake by the Italian. Minutilli took third from Hlad and Iddon while Delepine finished in eighth place after a mid-race crash.
In the second race, Gozzini took the lead with a brave overtaking move on Delepine as he moved past the Belgian on the inside of the long left-hander. However, tyre problems forced him to slow down his pace. After running wide in a corner, Gozzini was passed by both Delepine and Chareyre, who had been following.
Delepine rode solid to victory from team-mate Chareyre while Gozzini settled for a safe third.
Beltrami and Pignotti rounded off the top five as Minutilli took tenth after a crash at the start.
In the series standings Hiemer has now an advantage of 18 points over second placed VdB. Lazzarini is still third and made up 14 points on his team-mate with Chareyre and Winstanley rounding off the top five.
Adrien Chareyre still tops the S2 standings with a six-point advantage over Gozzini, who gained just one point on his rival today. Delepine is third and Pignotti fourth with Minutilli fifth and increasing his advantage over Beltrami to 11 points.
WORLD SUPERMOTO CHAMPS
Rd 5 Greinbach, AUSTRIA
S2 CLASS
1 Davide Gozzini (I - TM) 25 + 20 = 45
2 Adrien Chareyre (F - Husqvarna) 22 + 22 = 44
3 Gerald Delepine (B - Husqvarna) 13 + 25 = 38
4 Ales Hlad (BL - KTM) 18 + 14 = 32
5 Christian IDDON (GB - Aprilia) 16 + 15 = 31
6 Luca Minutilli (I - Aprilia) 20 + 11 = 31
7 Attilio Pignotti (I - KTM) 14 + 16 = 30
8 Andrea Occhini (I - Husaberg) 11 + 13 = 24
9 Mauno Hermunen (SF - Husqvarna) 15 + 8 = 23
10 Massimo Beltrami (I - Aprilia) 3 + 18 = 21
15 Richard BLAKEMAN (GB - KTM) 7 + 4 = 11
RACE ONE: 1 Gozzini, 2 Chareyre, 3 Minutilli, 4 Hlad, 5 IDDON, 6 Hermunen, 7 Pignotti, 8 Delepine, 9 Gaspardone, 10 Occhini,....
RACE TWO: 1 Delepine, 2 Chareyre, 3 Gozzini, 4 Beltrami, 5 Pignotti, 6 IDDON, 7 Hlad, 8 Occhini, 9 Mariani, 10 Minutilli,...
SERIES STANDINGS after 5 (of 9) rounds: 1 Chareyre 228 points, 2 Gozzini 222, 3 Delepine 171, 4 Pignotti 163, 5 Minutilli 159, 6 Beltrami 148, 7 Mariani 121, 8 Giovanelli 109, 9 Gaspardone 100, 10 IDDON 98,... 15 HARTLEY 62,... 17 BLAKEMAN 52,... 21 KINSELLA 16,
S1 CLASS
RACE ONE: 1 Ivan Lazzarini (I - Evolution Yamaha), 2 Bernd Hiemer (D - Miglio KTM), 3 Sylvain Bidart (F - Mafra Honda), 4 Fabio Balducci (I - Team TM), 5 Jerome Giraudo (F - Honda), 6 Jorge Cabrera (E - Yamaha), 7 Thomas Chareyre (F - CH Husqvarna), 8 Boris Chambon (F - Gil Kawasaki), 9 Kevin Berthome (F - Mafra Honda), 10 Thierry Van Den Bosch (F - Team Aprilia), 11 Maxime Testu (F - IPA Husaberg), 12 Jurgen Kuenzel (D - Husqvarna), 13 Petr Vorlicek (CZ - Suzuki), 14 Chris HODGSON (GB - Aprilia), 15 Xavi Barragan (E - Honda), 16 Elia Sammartin (I - Aprilia), 17 Guillaume Rigal (F - AGR Kawasaki), 18 Marco Dondi (I - PMR Aprilia), 19 Riccardo Peroni (I - Husqvarna), 20 Giovanni Bussei (I - SBD Honda).
RACE TWO: Not run due to a serious accident.
SERIES STANDINGS after 5 (of 9) rounds: 1 Bernd Hiemer 198 points, 2 Van Den Bosch 180, 3 Lazzarini 158, 4 Thomas Chareyre 146, 5 WINSTANLEY 126, 6 Chambon 123, 7 Bidart 118, 8 Balducci 95, 9 Vorlicek 84, 10 Jerome Giraudo 82,
Bernd Hiemer took runner-up spot in race one of the S1 class and lies 18 points clear at the top of the table.