Heavy rain slows proceedings at day one in Greinbach - Austria

Following a race management decision the time practice of S1 and S2 were reduced to 30 minutes. In the S3 class the Free Practice 2 results were taken as the Qualifying results because the Qualifying session was not run. In the Open class the first 15 riders in each qualifying heat qualified for the race as the remaining two were chosen with a criteria based on the prequalifying times.

Ivan Lazzarini took pole in the S1 class with a surprising Eddy Seel taking second on the wet. In S2 Massimo Beltrami secured the pole ahead of Davide Gozzini while series leader Adrien Chareyre was ninth.

Alessandro Asnicar took pole in the S3 class followed by Olivier Scheen.

In the Open class Uros Nastran and Heino Meusburger won the qualifying moto’s.

Cross 2R Husqvarna’s Sylvain Bidart opened the timed session with a solid laptime and sat on pole until DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory’s Ivan Lazzarini stormed to pole. The Italian had left the rest of the pack more than one second behind but later on Bernd Hiemer, Thierry Van Den Bosch and Jerome Giraudo chipped away at the gap every time each moved up to second.

Lazzarini improved his time again while Rigoracing Suzuki’s Eddy Seel moved up to an eventual second, taking his best qualifying result of the season.

DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory’s Thierry Van Den Bosch ended third quickest ahead of HM Honda Racing Monticelli’s Jerome Giraudo.

Wet weather specialist Matthew Winstanley of Robinsons KTM UK rounded off the top five as Championship leader Bernd Hiemer was sixth quickest after an unsuccessful late try to improve his position.

Early leader Bidart was an eventual eighth.

Top five: 1. Ivan Lazzarini (ITA, Aprilia), 1:30.802; 2. Eddy Seel (BEL, Suzuki), +0:00.520; 3. Thierry van den Bosch (FRA, Aprilia), +0:00.649; 4. Jerome Giraudo (FRA, Honda), +0:01.113; 5. Matthew Winstanley (GBR, KTM), +0:01.118

The podium comeback at Olbia was a confidence booster for DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory’s Massimo Beltrami who took his first season’s pole today after posting a superb lap on the wet Austrian course.

As Beltrami secured pole with his sixth of 12 laps, Italian countryman Davide Gozzini of TM Factory Racing ended a close second.

KTM Motoracing’s Ales Hlad ended a solid qualifying session in third place courtesy of a late storming lap; the latter moved past PMR H2O Aprilia Off Road’s Luca Minutilli who finished fourth eventually.

Defending Champion Gerald Delepine of Husqvarna CH Racing was fifth ahead of wet weather specialist Mauno Hermunen who led a few laps on a wet Castelletto last May.

Christian Iddon came back after an injury and took eighth quickest as he rides an experimental bike, featuring tons of 2009 parts such as a new side sole exhaust system smoothing the bike’s noise.

Red plate holder Adrien Chareyre and Attilio Pignotti had a bad day and ended ninth and fourteenth respectively.

Top five: 1. Massimo Beltrami (ITA, Aprilia), 1:33.185; 2. Davide Gozzini (ITA, TM), +0:00.166; 3. Ales Hlad (BUL, KTM), +0:00.883; 4. Luca Minutilli (ITA, Aprilia), +0:01.113; 5. Gérald Delepine (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:01.283

Early Championship leader Alessandro Asnicar took the pole with the winner of the latest two rounds Olivier Scheen ending second. The latter hopes to close the gap from series leader Oliver Pope, taking a bitter fifth today. Matteo Traversa completed the top three ahead of Lewis Cornish.

Uros Nastran took victory in the first qualifying heat and will start tomorrow’s race from pole ahead of Championship leader and second qualifying race winner Heino Meusburger. On the other hand runner up Alex Tognaccini had a disastrous day and will start from 32nd on the grid as he qualified through the "last chance";

today the remaining two riders on the grid –Christian Kohlbacher was the second- were selected via their lap times in the pre qualifying session as the last chance was not run. Edgardo Borella and Viktor Bolsek will round off the front row.

Hosting its first SuperMoto Grand Prix this weekend the PS Racing Center in Greinbach welcomes the SuperMoto series’ comeback to Austria as Melk was the last Austrian venue to have hosted a GP in 2006.

The course is very technical and twisty, featuring a wide variety of corners to be linked together at high speed. The minimum width is around 10 metres and the sky section is interrupted by a short stripe of asphalt making the competition more selective. The PS Racing Center is a permanent facility surrounded by a charming forest.

Greinbach is an Austrian municipality located in the district of Hartberg, Styria (a region in the South East of the country). Greinbach has about 2000 inhabitants and it is just 70 km away from beautiful Graz, which is the capital of Styria. Wien is 130 km North.

Sunday August 24: EC Open Warm Up at 8:05 am; EC S3 Warm Up at 8:30 am; S2 Warm Up at 8:55 am with Superpole immediately after; S1 Warm Up at 9:30 am with Superpole immediately after; EC Open Race 1 at 10:40 am; S2 Race 1 at 11:25 am; S1 Race 1 at 1:10 pm; EC S3 Race 1 at 1:50 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

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

Sport TV (Portugal) : 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

EUROSPORT 2 (Pan Europe): Sunday August 24, S1 Race 2 at 19:15 CET

EUROSPORT WORLD (Pan Asia): Sunday August 24, S1 Race 2 at 20:00. Monday August 25, S1 Race 2 at 04:45, at 10:30 and at 18:00. Tuesday August 26, S1 Race 2 at 03:00 and at 14:30. Wednesday August 27, S1 Race 2 at 00:00 and at 20:45 GMT

Information, photos and results are online at http://www.supermotoS1.com,  the official website of the FIM SuperMoto World Championships.

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- Daniele RIZZI -