Facing mixed weather conditions at day one of the Grand Prix of Europe, the FIM and UEM SuperMoto Championships riders experienced a newly modified Motodromo as the course was recently changed.
Aprilia took a clean sweep in today’s qualifying with Thierry Van Den Bosch topping the S1 time sheets and Christian Iddon clocking the S2 pole. The eventual top spot on the grid will be decided after tomorrow morning’s Superpole.
In the UEM series, Olivier Scheen took the pole in the S3 class while Viktor Bolsek and Alberto Dall’Era won the Open class qualifying heats.
S1
Aprilia Off Road’s Thierry Van Den Bosch stormed to pole at the end of the hard fought qualifying session, which started with a flying KTM Italia Miglio’s Bernd Hiemer. The German opened the session with a 1:12.966 laptime which was just three tenths of a second off the eventual pole.
VDB moved up to first with ten minutes to go and was then snatched the top spot by DRC Aprilia Off Road’s Ivan Lazzarini, forcing the rest of the field to slim their laptimes in order to keep up with the Italian’s pace.
With four minutes to go VDB was back on pole with Hiemer closing in moments before the flag was shown; Hiemer took an eventual second ahead of Lazzarini and TM Factory Racing’s Boris Chambon, who secured his first front row start since he moved to TM.
Slide zone specialist Giovanni Bussei of SBD Unionbike Racing rounded off the top five ahead of Jerome Giraudo and Matthew Winstanley.
Thomas Chareyre was a bitter eighth being the first placed Husqvarna rider of the day.
Top five: 1. Thierry van den Bosch (FRA, Aprilia), 1:12.610; 2. Bernd Hiemer (GER, KTM), +0:00.040; 3. Ivan Lazzarini (ITA, Aprilia), +0:00.095; 4. Boris Chambon (FRA, TM), +0:00.471; 5. Giovanni Bussei Canone (ITA, Honda), +0:00.707;
S2
After a bitter start to the GP season in Torino, Aprilia Off Road’s Christian Iddon is starting to make up for it and ended this opening day of the Grand Prix of Europe with pole. The British challenged TM Factory Racing’s Davide Gozzini since the qualifying session opened; the S2 series leader set the pace until ten minutes to go, when Iddon left his permanent mark on the time sheets.
Gozzini chipped away at his best time but it was not enough to move past Iddon; as the latter remained a safe first, Gozzini was eventually passed by KTM Italia Miglio’s Attilio Pignotti.
The front row will be completed by another home rider in the likes of PMR H2O Aprilia Off Road’s Luca Minutilli, who remained in the top five for the whole session.
MRC Racing’s Lorenzo Mariani was fifth ahead of Paolo Gaspardone and Massimo Beltrami.
Ending eighth quickest, Adrien Chareyre was the best placed Husqvarna rider as team mate and defending Champion Gerald Delepine was eleventh.
Top five: 1. Christian Iddon (GBR, Aprilia), 1:12.831; 2. Attilio Pignotti (ITA, KTM), +0:00.195; 3. Davide Gozzini (ITA, TM), +0:00.365; 4. Luca Minutilli (ITA, Aprilia), +0:00.629; 5. Lorenzo Mariani (ITA, TM), +0:00.842
UEM EUROPEAN SUPERMOTO CHAMPIONSHIP
Olivier Scheen took his second consecutive pole in the S3 class, confirming himself as one of the quickest riders in the series. Newcomer Janina Wuerterle, who is currently the only female rider in the series, took a brilliant second fastest time at her first racing appearance, leaving Championship leader Alessandro Asnicar behind in third. Oliver Pope and Romain Titone rounded off the top five.
With leader Graziano Rispoli sitting out of Castelletto because of an injury, Viktor Bolsek and Alberto Dall’Era won today’s qualifying heats in the Open class, to start first and second respectively on tomorrow’s grid. Heino Meusburger and Andreas Rothbauer finished runners up with Alex Tognaccini and Marco Candelori completing the top three in each heat.
THE MOTODROMO AND CASTELLETTO
Castelletto di Branduzzo’s Motodromo has been always linked to SuperMoto as it is one of the few permanent structures dedicated to the sport. The race track did undergo major changes throughout the winter and since April 2008 it looks completely different than it was last year. With the oval section and the sky zone being the only parts of the track that remained untouched, the rest of the Motodromo has become more flowing and fast
Basically the back straight is now longer and ends with a new section leading into the start straight; the twisty section which was opposite to the start straight is now changed into a technical series of two turns which will require a very fine set up work. There will be new lap records in each class. Last year’s event was won by Van Den Bosch in S1 and Pignotti in S2 at the end of a sunny weekend while the weather forecast for this weekend is cloudy.
Castelletto di Branduzzo is a town in the province of Pavia, which is also the closest main city being just 20 kilometres away. Though Castelletto is inside a triangle area edged by three major cities in Italy: Milano, Alessandria and Piacenza. The actual name of the town comes from the mergence of the two towns Castelletto Po and Branduzzo, which dates back to 1928.
THE EVENT’S SCHEDULE - UPDATED
Sunday May 25: KTM Italia Trophy Warm Up at 8:25 am; EC Open Warm Up at 8:35 am; EC S3 Warm Up at 8:48 am; S2 Warm Up at 9:00 am with Superpole immediately after; S1 Warm Up at 9:30 am with Superpole immediately after; KTM Italia Trophy Race 1 at 10:15 am; EC Open Race 1 at 10:50 am; EC S3 Race 1 at 11:35 am; S2 Race 1 at 12:25 am; S1 Race 1 at 1:25 pm; EC Open Race 2 at 2:25 pm; S2 Race 2 at 3:25 pm; S1 Race 2 at 4:25 pm; EC S3 Race 2 at 5:25 pm; KTM Italia Trophy Race 2 at 6:00 pm.
The Grand Prix will be broadcast live on:
EUROSPORT 2 (Pan Europe) : S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET
SPORT ITALIA (Italy) : S2 Race 2 at 15:00, S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET
ART (Pan Middle East) : S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET
Sport TV (Slovenia) : S2 Race 2 at 15:00, S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET
Trans 7 (Indonesia) : S2 Race 2 at 15:00, S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET
Mediazone (Worldwide) : S2 Race 2 at 15:00, S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET
The Grand Prix will be broadcast delayed on:
EUROSPORT WORLD (Pan Asia): Sunday May 25, S1 Race 2 at 18:00; Monday May 26, S1 Race 2 at 09:00 and at 22:15 GMT
Information, photos and results are online at http://www.supermotoS1.com, the official website of the FIM SuperMoto World Championships.
MediaZone Moto is the leading global online broadcaster of Motocross and SuperMoto events. Fans worldwide can watch the thrills from this and every race of the 2008 FIM Motocross & SuperMoto World Championships LIVE and On Demand exclusively at www.MediaZoneMoto.com.
Youthstream is the company that manages the exclusive television, marketing and promotional world wide rights of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the FIM Motocross of Nations, the FIM SuperMoto World Championship, the FIM SuperMoto of Nations, the FIM Snowcross World Championship, the UEM Motocross European Championship and the UEM SuperMoto European Championship.
- Daniele RIZZI -
