On a hot but windy day here in southern Spain and with the grandstands packed to the rafters the 100th Grand Prix of the FIM Supermoto World Championship burst into life with the best supermoto riders in the world preparing to do battle. And the opening GP on this historic occasion did not disappoint as close racing and fierce rivalries were once again the order of the day.
S1GP After setting the first pole position of the season Thomas CHAREYRE (TM Factory) made the most of his advantage and charged his way to the holeshot ahead of Mauno HERMUNEN, and for the first five laps the X-Max TM rider stalked the TM Factory pilot like an eagle stalks its prey until he found a way through to the lead at the end of the start-finish straight with a neat pass into turn one on Lap six. And for the remaining fourteen laps, Chareyre continued to push the Finn but despite his efforts was unable to regain the lead, the two riders eventually crossing the finish line 0.2 second apart in what was a great way to open the new season.
Behind them Pavel KEJMAR started in third and stayed there for the duration of the race, but at the end of the race was deemed to have failed a noise test and was docked five penalty places with Lukas HOELLBACHER the grateful recipient.
The Italian Ivan LAZZARINI was awarded fourth ahead of Teo MONTICELLI with sixth position going to Christian RAVAGLIA, who passed last years S2 European Champion Asseri KINGELIN with three laps to go. Kejmar was eventually awarded eighth place after his penalty.
Eric BOUGELET who crashed alone in timed training on Saturday did not start the race.
S1GP Race 1 Top Ten: 1. Hermunen Mauno (FIN-TM) 20:09.796; 2. Chareyre Thomas (FRA-TM) 20:10.061; 3. Hoellbacher Lukas (AUT-Husqvarna) 20:24.150; 4. Lazzarini Ivan (ITA-Honda) 20:34.080; 5. Monticelli Teo (ITA-Honda) 20:35.086; 6. Ravaglia Christian (ITA-Honda) 20:39.936; 7. Kingelin Asseri (FIN-Honda) 20:40.836; 8. Kejmar Pavel (CZE-Husqvarna) 20:40.837; 9. Vermeulen Devon (NED-KTM) 20:43.054; 10. Sammartin Elia (ITA-TM) 20:55.356.
S1GP Race 2
With race one finishing so close all eyes were on what would happen in the second race in the premier class, and as the lights went out there was drama right from the start. Mauno Hermunen grabbed an important holeshot but his closest rival and the rider who pushed him all the way to the checkered flag in race one, Thomas Chareyre, fell on the opening lap in the off-road section and was forced to stage a hard charge through the field. With the defending world champion out of the way, Hermunen was able to pull clear to win by a comfortable margin over Ivan Lazzarini with Lukas Hollbacher taking third for the second time of the weekend.
Thomas Chareyre eventually claimed an heroic fourth position ahead of Pavel Kejmar and Christian Ravaglia in what was a great spectacle for the thousands who witnessed the Frenchman’s determined charge.
The overall victory though belonged to Mauno Hermunen who gets off to the perfect start as Lazzarini, Hoellbacher and Chareyre all tied on points for second. With the second race finishing as it did, that meant that Lazzarini climbed the second step of the podium with Hoellbacher taking third.
S1GP Race 2 Top Ten: 1. Hermunen Mauno (FIN-TM) 20:28.372; 2. Lazzarini Ivan (ITA-Honda) 20:32.591; 3. Hoellbacher Lukas (AUT-Husqvarna) 20:33.916; 4. Chareyre Thomas (FRA-TM) 20:37.934; 5. Kejmar Pavel (CZE-Husqvarna) 20:43.784; 6. Ravaglia Christian (ITA-Honda) 20:46.852; 7. Kingelin Asseri (FIN-Honda) 20:47.461; 8. Vermeulen Devon (NED-KTM) 20:48.717; 9. Monticelli Teo (ITA-Honda) 20:52.486; 10. Cucharrera Francesc (ESP-Husqvarna) 21:06.251.
S1GP Overall Top Ten: 1. Hermunen Mauno (FIN-TM) 50 points; 2. Lazzarini Ivan (ITA-Honda) 40 p.; 3. Hoellbacher Lukas (AUT-Husqvarna) 40 p.; 4. Chareyre Thomas (FRA-TM) 40 p.; 5. Ravaglia Christian (ITA-Honda) 30 p.; 6. Kejmar Pavel (CZE-Husqvarna) 29 p.; 7. Kingelin Asseri (FIN-Honda) 28 p.; 8. Monticelli Teo (ITA-Honda) 28 p.; 9. Vermeulen Devon (NED-KTM) 25 p.; 10. Cucharrera Francesc (ESP-Husqvarna) 20 p.
S1GP Championship Top Ten: 1. Hermunen Mauno (FIN-TM) 50 points; 2. Lazzarini Ivan (ITA-Honda) 40 p.; 3. Chareyre Thomas (FRA-TM) 40 p.; 4. Hoellbacher Lukas (AUT-Husqvarna) 40 p.; 5. Ravaglia Christian (ITA-Honda) 30 p.; 6. Kejmar Pavel (CZE-Husqvarna) 29 p.; 7. Monticelli Teo (ITA-Honda) 28 p.; 8. Kingelin Asseri (FIN-Honda) 28 p.; 9. Vermeulen Devon (NED-KTM) 25 p.; 10. Cucharrera Francesc (ESP-Husqvarna) 20 p.
S1GP Manufacturers: 1. TM 50 points; 2. Honda 40 p.; 3. Husqvarna 40 p.; 4. KTM 25 p.; 5. Suzuki 15 p.; 6. Yamaha 0 p.
S2
After storming to his first career pole on Saturday Marc REINER SCHMIDT wasted no time in taking his place at the head of the pack as he grabbed the all-important holeshot to lead from lap one, and from there went on to record his first ever S2 European Championship race victory by the comfortable margin of almost nine seconds.
Yuri GUARDALA started in second place but had no answer to the pace of Reiner Schmidt, instead having to deal with the pressure from Toni KLEM who chased the Italian all the way from flag-to-flag to come home third.
Behind the top three, the race was pretty static apart from the hard charging performance from Diego MONTICELLI; the Italian started in seventh and looked content to stay there, but with three laps to go managed to move past Mattia MARTELLA and Fabrizio BARTOLINI to take a well deserved fourth.
S2 Race 1 top ten: 1. Schmidt Marc Reiner (GER-TM) 20:33.157; 2. Guardalà Yuri (ITA-Honda) 20:41.571; 3. Klem Toni (FIN-TM) 20:42.694; 4. Monticelli Diego (ITA-Honda) 20:48.201; 5. Bartolini Fabrizio (ITA-Honda) 20:48.238; 6. Martella Mattia (ITA-KTM) 20:52.962; 7. Bussei Giovanni (ITA-TM) 21:12.654; 8. Llados Joan (ESP-Aprilia) 21:17.602; 9. Ciaglia Luca (ITA-Honda) 21:20.391; 10. Gimenez David (ESP-Suzuki) 21:21.746.
S2 Race 2
If you were to ask Marc REINER SCHMIDT what is his favourite circuit you could almost guarantee that after today he would say Jerez de la Frontera, because for him the opening round of the S2 European Championship will always be remembered as the place where all his dreams came true, after recording another start-to-finish victory to claim maximum points and to stand proudly on the top step of the podium. Behind him, Toni KLEM was able to go one better and finished five seconds adrift of the new championship leader and red plate holder.
Mattia MARTELLA rode confidently in race two to place third, an improvement on his sixth position in the first outing after passing Fabrizio BARTOLINI on lap two, and capitalizing on a mistake from Yuri GUARDALA who fell on lap eight.
Fourth position belonged to Diego MONTICELLI who once again showed that he has the speed to pull through the pack as he had to again as he came from seventh on the opening lap.
Fabrizio Bartolini started in fifth but moved into fourth at one thirds race distance, but with a third of the race to go was pushed back into fifth by Monticelli.
But the day belonged to Marc Reiner Schmidt and he will heard to round two with an eight point advantage over Klem.
S2 Race 2 Top Ten: 1. Schmidt Marc Reiner (GER-TM) 20:49.168; 2. Klem Toni (FIN-TM) 20:54.312; 3. Martella Mattia (ITA-KTM) 21:08.629; 4. Monticelli Diego (ITA-Honda) 21:09.438; 5. Bartolini Fabrizio (ITA-Honda) 21:09.704; 6. Guardalà Yuri (ITA-Honda) 21:15.569; 7. Bussei Giovanni (ITA-TM) 21:17.948; 8. Gimenez David (ESP-Suzuki) 21:28.272; 9. Promutico Lorenzo (ITA-Honda) 21:33.583; 10. Jaros Zdenek (CZE-KTM) 21:35.156.
S2 Overall Top Ten: 1. Schmidt Marc Reiner (GER-TM) 50 points; 2. Klem Toni (FIN-TM) 42 p.; 3. Guardalà Yuri (ITA-Honda) 37 p.; 4. Monticelli Diego (ITA-Honda) 36 p.; 5. Martella Mattia (ITA-KTM) 35 p.; 6. Bartolini Fabrizio (ITA-Honda) 32 p.; 7. Bussei Giovanni (ITA-TM) 28 p.; 8. Gimenez David (ESP-Suzuki) 24 p.; 9. Ciaglia Luca (ITA-Honda) 22 p.; 10. Jaros Zdenek (CZE-KTM) 21 p.
S2 Championship Top Ten: 1. Schmidt Marc Reiner (GER-TM) 50 points; 2. Klem Toni (FIN-TM) 42 p.; 3. Guardalà Yuri (ITA-Honda) 37 p.; 4. Monticelli Diego (ITA-Honda) 36 p.; 5. Martella Mattia (ITA-KTM) 35 p.; 6. Bartolini Fabrizio (ITA-Honda) 32 p.; 7. Bussei Giovanni (ITA-TM) 28 p.; 8. Gimenez David (ESP-Suzuki) 24 p.; 9. Ciaglia Luca (ITA-Honda) 22 p.; 10. Jaros Zdenek (CZE-KTM) 21 p.
S2 Manufacturers: 1. TM 50 points; 2. Honda 40 p.; 3. KTM 35 p.; 4. Suzuki 24 p.; 5. Aprilia 20 p.; 6. Husqvarna 13 p.; 7. Yamaha 5 p.
Complete results available HERE
