RUSSIAN sensation Emil Sayfutdinov was the tough of the track with a second Grand Prix win in three rounds in a melodramatic Swedish SGP at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg.
The 19-year-old, floored in the first running of the final in a crash that led to reigning champion Nicki Pedersen's contentious exclusion, came from third to first in the re-run ahead of World Championship leader Jason Crump and wild-card Antonio Lindback, who had top scored ahead of the semi-finals with 12 points.
Crump, battered and bruised after hitting Sayfutdinov's bike when he laid his machine down in the first running, was happy enough to finish runner-up on the night, and now leads the title race on 52 points. Sayfutdinov has moved into second place on 46, while Andreas Jonsson, who gleaned 12 points from the night after running a third in the first semi-final, is now third overall on 39. Crump, who had scored 10 points in the qualifying, admitted: "It was a rugged old night and the track was hard to ride. I am just happy to come away from it still leading the World Championship."
A dry, slick surface rutted up badly as the night wore on, and conditions became increasingly more challenging. Fortune favoured the brave, and there were few braver than Sayfutdinov and Lindback, who chanced their arm to maximum effect. The final saw the young guns up against Pedersen and Crump, two riders with five World titles between them, and was shaping up as a memorable shoot-out. Some spectacular jousting saw Pedersen, Sayfutdinov (both had qualified with 11 points) and Lindback trade places at the front until Pedersen drove up the inside of leader Sayfutdinov going into lap three and the Russian slid off after the pair made contact. Crump, seemingly out of contention at the back, did well to drop his machine but couldn't avoid colliding heavily with the Russian's bike. An incensed Pedersen was excluded, and in the re-run Crump, who was walking gingerly after the crash, looked to have taken command.
But Sayfutdinov, who possessed tremendous speed throughout, came storming up the inside of Lindback and then passed Crump as they went into the final lap to celebrate another stunning victory. Lindback's rostrum finish was conclusive evidence that the Brazilian-born Swede's career is on the up again - and he was quick to praise the input of his mentor, six-times World Champion Tony Rickardsson. Fredrik Lindgren, who top scored at Gothenburg last year, also rode the ruts well, but reared violently in the first semi-final as he battled behind fellow countrymen Lindback and Jonsson and hit the solid back-straight fence back first. Crump, who was at the back at the time, grabbed his reprieve with both hands to finish second behind Lindback in the re-run, and eliminate Jonsson, his main challenger going into the meeting. Rune Holta, the winner of last year's Swedish Grand Prix in Gothenburg, also looked a good bet for the final. He had thrillingly caught Greg Hancock on the line for second place behind Kenneth Bjerre in Heat 14 and finished on 10 points. But though he was briefly second behind Sayfutdinov in the second semi-final, Pedersen muscled past at the end of the first lap to end his hopes.
Bjerre took the last semi-final spot on eight points when Tomasz Gollob and Sebastian Ulamek finished behind Sayfutdinov in the final qualifying race. Hans Andersen had also gone into Heat 20 with a chance of a semi-final place, but the Dane wiped out Ulamek when he picked up some unexpected grip and was excluded. Hancock, who was joint third overall with Sayfutdinov at the start of the night, also saw his meeting sabotaged by misfortune. The luckless American hit the deck in Heat 6 after locating a hole on the third and fourth turns, and then retired with a puncture when leading Heat 18 when a race win would have taken him into the semi-finals. The American had won Heat 10 after a real scrap with Lindgren. Gollob, who never looked happy, missed out on the last eight while Leigh Adams had a night to quickly forget, never getting dialled in on the testing circuit and finishing with just three points.
Brits Chris Harris and Scott Nicholls also finished way down the order, Harris winning Heat 1 impressively but then running three lasts, though he was unlucky to be thrown off line by the track after trapping to the front in Heat 9. Nicholls, in contrast, endured a night of total dejection, looking totally out of sorts and having his solitary point gifted to him when Hancock pulled up in Heat 18.
FIM Swedish SGP scores:
Emil Sayfutdinov (Russia) 20, Jason Crump (Australia) 16, Antonio Lindback (Sweden) 17, Nicki Pedersen (Denmark) 13, Andreas Jonsson (Sweden) 12, Rune Holta (Poland) 11, Fredrik Lindgren (Sweden) 9, Kenneth Bjerre (Denmark) 8, Tomasz Gollob (Poland) 7, Sebastian Ulamek (Poland) 6, Grzegorz Walasek (Poland) 6, Greg Hancock (USA) 5, Hans Andersen (Denmark) 5, Chris Harris (Great Britain) 5, Leigh Adams (Australia) 3, Scott Nicholls (Great Britain) 1. World Championship standings: Crump 52, Sayfutdinov 46, Jonsson 39, Pedersen 34, Hancock 31, Gollob 31, Lindgren 30, Bjerre 23, Adams 22, Holta 22, Ulamek 19, Andersen 17, Walasek 17, *Lindback 17, Harris 16, *Jarek Hampel (Poland) 9, Nicholls 6, *Matej Kus (Czech Republic) 1.
*denotes wild-cards.
