It is all change at the top of the 2023 FIM Flat Track World Championship standings following a dramatic afternoon at Debrecen in Hungary where the second of this year’s five Finals was staged in the Perenyi Pal Salakmotor Stadion.
Report and Feature image courtesy of FIM Flat Track
There is still a Czech rider at the top of the points table, but it is now Ervin Krajčovič (KTM) – who was second at the season opener in Great Britain at the start of last month – who is setting the pace after finishing third in the Grand Final in Hungary.
Consistency wins titles and with his back-to-back podium finishes Krajčovič is now two points clear. However, there is still a long way to go before the championship is decided and Debrecen saw the return to top form of Italy’s Matteo Boncinelli (GASGAS) and defending champion Gerard Bailo (KTM) from Spain.
The pair battled it out last year with Bailo narrowly beating Boncinelli to the crown and, after both failed to make the podium at round one in Manchester, it was the Italian on top today with Bailo finishing runner-up. The result lifts them into a three-way tie for second with the Czech Republic’s Ondřej Svědík (Yamaha) who won in Great Britain and was sixth this afternoon.
With the first ten riders following the sixteen Heat races going directly into the Grand Final, Boncinelli’s progress throughout the afternoon’s programme was untroubled and he qualified on top tied with Australia’s Jarred Brook (Husqvarna) after both dropped just one point.
Bailo also enjoyed a relatively smooth ride through his four Heat races with three wins and a third and Krajčovič, Italy’s Daniele Moschini (GASGAS), Matias Lorenzato (Zaeta) from Argentina, French rider Sebastien Jeanpierre (Kawasaki) and German veteran Markus Jell (KTM) all posted four solid rides to qualify.
Italy’s Vittorio Emanuele Marzotto (Fantic) and American star ‘Slammin’ Sammy’ Halbert also went straight through to the Grand Final despite both being disqualified from the results of a Heat race with Marzotto taking three wins and Halbert two wins and a second.
The final two places behind the startline for the Grand Final were decided in the Last Chance race for riders who finished the Heats positioned from eleventh to twentieth and Svědík, who was struggling to find his form following a five-week break after round one, booked his place with victory ahead of Italy’s Daniele Tonelli (TM).
By running one-two in the Grand Final, Boncinelli and Bailo have posted a clear warning to their rivals that they mean business again this year, while Krajčovič and Svědík remain firmly in the hunt to become the Czech Republic’s first-ever FIM Flat Track World Champion.
Halbert and Jell saw their title hopes suffer a serious blow when they were both disqualified from the Grand Final and Brook will also be seriously disappointed after retiring from the main race of the afternoon, however with the third Final scheduled for this coming Saturday (16 September) at Boves in Italy all three will have to bounce back quickly.
Results
