Hermunen gets maiden GP victory

Mauno Hermunen achieved his maiden Grand Prix victory in the unique track of Pleven after taking the Superpole over Thomas Chareyre, Thierry Van Den Bosch and Davide Gozzini. Second overall was Thomas Chareyre, who managed to get the red plate back, and third was his team mate Davide Gozzini, lying second in the Championship, level in points with Chareyre. 

The opening moto was redflagged after Christian Ravaglia crashed. The Italian escaped unhurt and could line up for the remaining two races.

Home rider Angel Karanyotov domitated the three heats of the UEM Open class and achieved the overall victory in front of his Bulgarian fans. Uros Nastran and Teo Monticelli completed the podium. In the S3 class other Bulgarian rider Antonio Todorov also achieved to be at the top of the podium. 

747 Motorsport TM Racing Factory’s Thomas Chareyre finished second overall and he regained the red plate from his team mate Gozzini having the exact amount of points in the Championship standings. In the first race the French did not have a good start and had to work all the way through until finishing second starring in a tight battle with GP winner Hermunen and VDB. In the second race, Thomas Chareyre got a solid second position and in the last and crucial heat the French had to fight tooth and nail with his brother Adrien in order to finish second. 

Other 747 Motorsport TM Racing Factory rider Gozzini completed the rostrum, but he lost the red plate having the same points as his team mate Thomas Chareyre. The Italian started by dominating the first heat with superb authority finishing first, four seconds in front of Thomas Chareyre and Hermunen, but could only finish fourth in the two following races. Gozzini is willing to race against Thomas Chareyre in the last GP of the season in Salou and try to achieve his maiden FIM S1 World Title – a goal which is common to both. 

Husqvarna CH Racing’s Adrien Chareyre managed to be fourth overall, which is his best result of the season, but he is still seventh in the Championship 20 points behind Hiemer. The French was just sixth in the first race, but in the second and third ones showed everybody why he has the number one on his Husqvarna machine. Adrien Chareyre finished third in the last two heats after fighting for the second position with his brother Thomas.

Completing the top five was PMR H2O Aprilia Racing’s Van Den Bosch, who could not be on the podium as he did in the previous GP in Sicily. VDB achieved being fourth in the first heat but he had to race the next two motos with the second bike and it took some time for the French to adapt his riding to the new settings of his Aprillia machine. VDB ended just fifth and sixth respectively. 

Ravaglia also had his best season result ending sixth overall, but his crash in the first heat while he was riding fifth made the race director stop the race immediately. The Italian rider was fortunately not injured and he was able to race the two following motos finishing sixth and fifth respectively. 

Hiemer continues struggling with his bike and was just seventh overall with only one point advantage over Bussei. Ninth was Sammartin and completing the top ten was Lazzarini, who is still recovering from his pulmonary bronchitis. 

Occhini, who was on the third step of the podium in Sicily, could not find a good rhythm in the Bulgarian track and ended just 12th overall. 

S1 Race 1 top ten: 1. Davide Gozzini (ITA, TM), 14:15.231; ; 2. Thomas Chareyre (FRA, TM), +0:04.310; 3. Mauno Hermunen (FIN, Husqvarna), +0:04.915; 4. Thierry van den Bosch (FRA, Aprilia), +0:06.709; 5. Christian Ravaglia (ITA, Suzuki), +0:07.351; 6. Adrien Chareyre (FRA, Husqvarna), +0:07.573; 7. Giovanni Bussei (ITA, Honda), +0:08.739; 8. Ivan Lazzarini (ITA, Honda), +0:10.729; 9. Bernd Hiemer (GER, KTM), +0:12.254; 10. Elia Sammartin (ITA, Honda), +0:18.104;