Germany grabs maiden win at FIM SuperMoto of Nations

A hard fought FIM SuperMoto of Nations ended with the maiden victory of Team Germany, beating home Team Bulgaria by just two points. Finland made it to the podium with third as Italy slipped from first to fourth at the end of an eventful third heat.

Germany team mates Becher, Joannidis and Deitenbach brought an historical result home by taking the squad's maiden win at the FIM SuperMoto of Nations. Despite not having won any of the races, the overall result was the outcome of a perfect team work as the Germans always placed around the top five except for Joannidis' technical issue (broken front brake) in heat two.

Bulgaria improved on last year's maiden podium by one position as Karanyotov, Georgiev and Tonchev performed well throughout the three heats. Georgiev even won race two after Karanyotov had taken a solid second in moto one.

Finland completed the podium making it their first rostrum appearance. Kingelin, Toronen and Jauhiainen unveiled to be a strong team overall and worked their way up to the podium, confirming a provisional third which they grabbed at the end of heat two.

Defending Champion Team Italy was hit by bad luck after they had been leading the provisional standings. At race three leader Mariani went down and dislocated his left shoulder as team mate Bartolini broke the bike. Eventually the squad ended in fourth ahead of Czech Republic.

RACE 1 (S1 & S2)
Karanyotov led the group into the opening corner followed by Becher and Gaspardone. The Bulgarian tried to pull away but Gaspardone remained at his tail after moving past German Becher at lap two.

The duo battled for first until the Italian worked his way past Karanyotov. Gaspardone did pull away and won while Karanyotov settled for second. On the other hand Bulgarian team mate Georgiev crashed while he was working his way through the top ten. He took an eventual 13th.

Becher made it to third ahead of Vorlicek, Nastran and Finn Toronen.

Bartolini took tenth despite a tangle and helped putting Italy up in first ahead of Germany and Bulgaria.

Despite a broken right collarbone Grau rode the first couple of laps for Team Spain.

Nations top ten: Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, Finland, Spain Junior, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia.

RACE 2 (S2 & OPEN)
Making up for the mistake in race one, Bulgarian Georgiev rode a flawless second heat, taking the holeshot and dominating each of the 13 laps. While Georgiev was completing his victorious performance Joannidis, Gaspardone and Nastran battled for the runner up spot.

German Joannidis crashed right after Gaspardone had passed him but Nastran kept close throughout the whole moto. The Slovenian waited until the final lap when he moved past Gaspardone, who struggled with the track grip.

Finn Toronen made it to fourth ahead of Mariani. Other Bulgarian Tonchev was eighth.

Italy remained in first with Bulgaria closing in. Finland in the meantime had worked his way up to third by moving ahead of Germany.

Nations top ten: Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Austria, Sweden, Estonia, Spain Junior.

RACE 3 (S1 & OPEN)
Mariani took the holeshot and led for the beginning of the race. At lap two though the Italian lost the front and went down, dislocating his left shoulder and handing the lead to Swedish Nilsson.

As Italy's first place was being defended by Bartolini, the other Italian was sidelined by a technical failure later on in the race spelling an early end to the Team's wrestle for the Francesco Zerbi Trophy.

Race leader Nilsson was then passed by young gun Retuerta of Spain, who opened up a gap of almost four seconds to win the race ahead of Nilsson.

German Becher put pressure on the Swedish but eventually settled for third, sealing Germany's win together with Deitenbach's seventh place finish.

Bolsec and Vorlicek completed the top five. Finland struggled as their first Superider was Kingelin down in ninth. Karanyotov was right behind in 10th due to a crash.

Taking two third places, German Becher collected the victory of the S1 class. Gaspardone of Italy won the S2 class while Spaniard Retuerta won the Open class.
 
Nations Top Ten: Germany, Bulgaria, Finland, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Spain Junior, Austria, Croatia.