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 Race 1
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 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.