Thomas Chareyre bounce back from his disappointment of the season opener to take control at the top of the S1GP standings with an emphatic display of riding here at Ottobiano today to not only win the GP but also take control of the World Championship as Marc Reiner Schmidt one again rode immaculately in S2 to extend his lead in the European Championship.
S1GP Race 1
After securing pole position for the main race Thomas CHAREYRE wasted no time in putting it to good use in race one as he grabbed the holeshot and rode to a convincing victory, leading every one of the fourteen laps on offer. Behind him were equally impressive rides for Pavel KEJMAR and Lukas HOELLBACHER who raced to second and third positions respectively. Despite starting in fourth position, Andrea OCCHINI wasn’t able to hold off the challenge from Ivan LAZZARINI and the Honda rider eventually was able to ease by his fellow Italian at the halfway stage of the race where he would go on to claim fourth.
But it was a tough opening race though for Mauno HERMUNEN after suffering a poor start, he could only make one pass during the entire race to move from sixth to fifth, losing valuable points to Chareyre in the process.
S1GP Race 2
After his disappointment in race one Mauno Hermunen was fired up for race two and his holeshot was the perfect way to get things started in race two. But the confidence of Thomas Chareyre was running at an all-time high and the Finn was displaced by the second lap after Hermunen made a small mistake which allowed Chareyere and Pavel Kejmar to sneak by.
As Hermunen tried to re-take second from Kejmar, the Czech rider made his own mistake and fell back to fourth behind Hermunen and Ivan Lazzarini and for the remaining second half of the race the top four positions remained unchanged. A late charge from Devon VERMEULEN saw him climb to fifth with less than a handful of laps to go. But the ride of the race belonged to Lukas HOELLBACHER who after falling on Lap one put in a strong performance to climb from fifteenth to take sixth with two laps to go in what can be safely described as damage limitation to his championship chances.
Thomas Chareyre stood victorious on the top step of the podium flanked by Pavel Kejmar and Mauno Hermunen and now leads the championship by two points from the Finn.