Albergoni makes Day2 Polish podium

Italian Simone Albergoni once again led the UFO Corse Yamaha team's Enduro 1 class assault of the World Enduro Championship where at the Grand Prix of Poland he finished in 4th and 3rd places aboard his WR250F. With a break of just over two months since the third round of the series was held in Spain Albergoni was determined to maintain his good run of results in this year's WEC series and despite missing out on a podium result on Day1 claimed a well deserved 3rd place on Day2 to maintain his 3rd position in the Enduro 1 world championship standings. No fewer than four Yamaha mounted riders finished inside the top six on both days in Poland. Yamaha France rider Marc Germain placed 3rd on Day1 but dropped to 6th on Day2. With conditions extremely dry and dusty in Kwidzyn the fourth round of the '08 WEC series proved to be an extremely demanding one. A long, hard day lay ahead on Saturday, and a shorter but equally as challenging prospect on Sunday. Yamaha France rider Marc Germain emerged as the highest placed Yamaha rider on Day1 claiming 3rd place alongside Mika Ahola and winner Ivan Cervantes. For UFO Corse Yamaha riders Simone Albergoni, Cristobal Guerrero and Maurizio Micheluz the opening day brought mixed fortunes as Albergoni wasn't quite able to find the speed he had produced at earlier rounds of the championship, and as a result was unable to challenge for a top three result. Spaniard Cristobal Guerrero saw much of his hard work undone when he crashed in the final enduro test. In contention for a podium result up until the time of his spill, the former Enduro Junior world champion then fell again on the final extreme test, which well and truly ended his chances of a top-three. Cristobal eventually placed 5th, sandwiched between Albergoni and the UFO Corse Yamaha team's third E1 class rider Maurizio Micheluz. On Day2 Albergoni returned to the podium but for reasons he wasn't able to explain could not challenge Ahola and Cervantes for the win. Consistent throughout the day Albergoni only finished lower than 4th in the class on two occasions, but was frustrated with having not been more competitive. Nevertheless the Italian remains a strong third in the Enduro 1 world championship standings. Just 10 seconds behind Albergoni on Day2 Guerrero avoided the mistakes he made 24 hours earlier and placed a solid 4th. Performing well on both the technical extreme test and long motocross test the Spaniard showed that he is now fully over his early season shoulder injury and that it won't be long until he is challenging for the E1 class podium. One place behind Cristobal, but over one-minute adrift, Maurizio Micheluz finished Day2 in 5th with Yamaha France rider Marc Germain 6th. Simone Albergoni (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1, 4th, Day 2, 3rd: "Finishing on the podium on the second day was good but I'm not really pleased with the way I rode this weekend. The frustrating thing is that I'm not really sure why I wasn't able to be as fast as I needed to be to fight for victory. I had a few small crashes but that wasn't my main problem. I guess I just wasn't fast enough. I hope that in Wales I'll be able to ride like I did in Portugal." Cristobal Guerrero (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1, 5th, Day 2, 4th: "I'm pleased with my results from day two but not really happy with the way things finished on day one. The first day was going really well until the last lap, and then I had a really bad final enduro and extreme test. I lost a lot of time in the enduro test and then fell on the extreme. I still finished fifth but I was a long way behind Albergoni. The second day wasn't too bad as I was fourth and only 10 seconds behind Albergoni. I had a good second day really but I was a little bit slow on the first enduro test." Maurizio Micheluz (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1, 6th, Day 2, 5th: "Day one didn't start so well because I didn't feel good in the dusty, sandy conditions. I crashed twice, which didn't help my result, but I just didn't feel good. The second day was better because I finished fifth - I rode some better special tests so I was happier about that. I caught up to one or two riders on the special tests on day two, which slowed me a little bit because of the dust, but probably didn't change my result too much. It's not been the best of races, but also not too bad." Race 1 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Ivan Cervantes, KTM, ESP, 79'58.500 2, Mika Ahola, Honda, FIN, 0'15.410 3, Marc Germain, Yamaha, FRA, 1'9.610 4, Simone Albergoni, Yamaha, ITA, 1'29.090 5, Cristobal Guerrero, Yamaha, ESP, 2'24.300 6, Maurizio Micheluz, Yamaha, ITA, 3'17.620 7, Tom Sagar, KTM, GBR, 3'53.080 8, Jordan Curvalle, Suzuki, FRA, 4'42.190 9, Mike Hartmann, KTM, GER, 5'1.370 10, Luca Cherubini, TM, ITA, 5'38.060 11, Daryl Bolter, Husqvarna, GBR, 5'38.520 12, David Cadek, KTM, CZE, 7'11.530 13, Gonzalo Reis, KTM, ITA, 8'34.790 14, Frederik Georgsson, KTM, SWE, 9'56.610 15, Jakub Horak, KTM, CZE, 10'56.630 16, Waclaw Skolarus, Yamaha, POL, 13'16.320 Race 2 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Ivan Cervantes, KTM, ESP, 65'39.040 2, Mika Ahola, Honda, FIN, 0'23.480 3, Simone Albergoni, Yamaha, ITA, 1'40.610 4, Cristobal Guerrero, Yamaha, ESP, 1'50.890 5, Maurizio Micheluz, Yamaha, ITA, 3'0.470 6, Marc Germain, Yamaha, FRA, 3'58.710 7, Mike Hartmann, KTM, GER, 4'16.180 8, Tom Sagar, KTM, GBR, 4'24.260 9, Daryl Bolter, Husqvarna, GBR, 4'34.400 10, Jordan Curvalle, Suzuki, FRA, 5'54.380 11, Sandro Marcos, Suzuki, POR, 6'11.420 12, David Cadek, KTM, CZE, 6'43.780 13, Gonzalo Reis, KTM, ITA, 8'21.050 14, Jakub Horak, KTM, CZE, 8'24.000 15, Frederik Georgsson, KTM, SWE, 9'42.690 Rider Standings 14/06/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Mika Ahola, Honda, FIN, 186 2, Ivan Cervantes, KTM, ESP, 176 3, Simone Albergoni, Yamaha, ITA, 165 4, Cristobal Guerrero, Yamaha, ESP, 118 5, Marc Germain, Yamaha, FRA, 115 6, Eero Remes, KTM, FIN, 112 7, Maurizio Micheluz, Yamaha, ITA, 103 8, Jordan Curvalle, Suzuki, FRA, 86 9, Mike Hartmann, KTM, GER, 75 10, Tom Sagar, KTM, GBR, 68 11, Luca Cherubini, TM, ITA, 63 12, Daryl Bolter, Husqvarna, GBR, 58 13, David Cadek, KTM, CZE, 45 14, Gonzalo Reis, KTM, ITA, 42 15, Jakub Horak, KTM, CZE, 40 Manufacturer Standings 14/06/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Honda, 186 2, KTM, 181 3, Yamaha, 167 4, Husqvarna, 87 5, Suzuki, 86 6, TM, 63 7, Kawasaki, 47 ---------- RACE REPORT - 16/06/2008 Aubert maintains E2 lead after Polish podium double Arriving at the Grand Prix of Poland as leader of the Enduro 2 world championship Frenchman Johnny Aubert hoped to repeat the double E2 class victory he scored at the third round of the series in Spain. Looking forward to competing in the dry conditions and well rested ahead of the fourth event of the season, Aubert would go on to take 2nd on both days in Kwidzyn, finishing behind Finn Juha Salminen. Unable, like many riders, to really get to grips with the extremely dry, dusty conditions, Aubert nevertheless remains at the top of the E2 championship standings. Aubert's team mate Fabrizio Dini suffered two big crashes on Day1 and placed 9th in both outings. Beginning Day1 by finishing 10th following a crash on the opening extreme test, wasn't the start world championship class leader Aubert had hoped for. Having made a small but costly mistake on the first timed special test of the event, that's exactly how the fourth round of the '08 WEC series began for the Yamaha mounted Frenchman. Thankfully his form would pick up markedly as Aubert bounced back to win the very next special test before going on to claim a solid runner-up result to seven-time world champion Juha Salminen. On Day2 the 28 year old made a much better start but after more than one-hour of special test action, again placed second to Salminen. Avoiding big mistakes and riding well aboard his WR450F, Aubert wasn't able to get into a rhythm across the dry, dusty Polish terrain. Winning one of the day's three timed motocross tests, Johnny finished comfortably ahead of third placed E2 class rider Simo Kirssi and claimed two runner-up results overall from what the Frenchman openly admitted wasn't a particularly good weekend. With the '08 WEC series now passing the halfway point Aubert still remains comfortably ahead in the Enduro 2 class. Italian Fabrizio Dini - like Aubert - also crashed on the opening day's special, placing 23rd in the class at the end of the opening extreme test on day one and then spent the rest of the course working his way up the leader-board. Performing consistently well on the motocross test Dini was unable to reproduce his speed on the enduro and extreme test sections but succeeded in fighting his way back to 9th in the class. On Day2 Dini again posted impressively quick times on the motocross test but was unable to improve on his day one result, again finishing 9th. Johnny Aubert (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1, 2nd, Day 2, 2nd: "I don't know why but this weekend wasn't good for me. My riding wasn't as good as it should have been and I just didn't have a good feeling on the special test. I just didn't feel comfortable. I still managed to get two second place results despite this, which isn't too bad for the championship, but Juha was too fast. I crashed once on the extreme test on day one, and after that nothing I attempted helped me go faster. Like I said this is not what I wanted but it still wasn't so bad. I just hope that things will be better in the UK." Fabrizio Dini (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - day 1 Ninth, Day 2 Ninth: "Day one didn't go well for me. I made mistakes and stopped my bike in both the first and second extreme tests and I was last in the E2 class after the first extreme test. Things improved after that but because I made such a bad start to the day I was just trying to make back as many positions as I could. I didn't have such a good opening lap on day two. Things improved but, well, it wasn't so bad. It was a hard race though, especially on day one because it was so long." Race 1 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Juha Salminen, KTM, FIN, 79'25.500 2, Johnny Aubert, Yamaha, FRA, 1'1.830 3, Alessandro Belometti, KTM, ITA, 3'33.610 4, Rodrig Thain, TM, FRA, 3'34.210 5, Simo Kirssi, BMW, FIN, 3'45.860 6, Aaron Bernandez, Husqvarna, ESP, 4'13.020 7, Valtteri Salonen, HusaBerg, FIN, 4'36.610 8, Joakim Ljunggren, HusaBerg, SWE, 4'40.600 9, Fabrizio Dini, Yamaha, ITA, 5'9.150 10, Hans Vogel, KTM, NED, 5'35.380 11, Nicolas Paganon, Aprilia, FRA, 5'35.450 12, Alessandro Zanni, Honda, ITA, 5'52.040 13, Fabio Mossini, Honda, ITA, 5'55.600 14, Rudy Cotton, Beta, FRA, 7'59.740 15, Daniel Persson, HusaBerg, SWE, 8'24.090 16, Amel Advokaat, KTM, NED, 9'1.880 17, Felipe Zanol, Yamaha, ESP, 9'22.250 18, Peter Kralik, KTM, SVN, 11'15.600 19, Nicolas Joye, HusaBerg, CHE, 12'49.760 20, Sebastian Adielsson, Beta, SWE, 13'30.000 Race 2 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Juha Salminen, KTM, FIN, 65'52.950 2, Johnny Aubert, Yamaha, FRA, 0'41.530 3, Simo Kirssi, BMW, FIN, 2'42.930 4, Antoine Meo, Husqvarna, FRA, 2'44.720 5, Alessandro Belometti, KTM, ITA, 2'58.180 6, Alessandro Zanni, Honda, ITA, 3'28.620 7, Joakim Ljunggren, HusaBerg, SWE, 3'38.070 8, Fabio Mossini, Honda, ITA, 3'49.080 9, Fabrizio Dini, Yamaha, ITA, 3'54.360 10, Rodrig Thain, TM, FRA, 3'59.520 11, Nicolas Deparrois, GasGas, FRA, 4'48.180 12, Hans Vogel, KTM, NED, 5'3.030 13, Nicolas Paganon, Aprilia, FRA, 5'52.550 14, Felipe Zanol, Yamaha, ESP, 6'27.530 15, Daniel Persson, HusaBerg, SWE, 6'32.560 16, Andrea Belotti, KTM, ITA, 7'59.010 17, Amel Advokaat, KTM, NED, 8'9.000 18, Rudy Cotton, Beta, FRA, 8'28.310 19, Peter Kralik, KTM, SVN, 8'47.270 20, Mario Patrao, Suzuki, POR, 9'28.580 Rider Standings 14/06/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Johnny Aubert, Yamaha, FRA, 183 2, Juha Salminen, KTM, FIN, 164 3, Alessandro Belometti, KTM, ITA, 135 4, Joakim Ljunggren, HusaBerg, SWE, 126 5, Rodrig Thain, TM, FRA, 110 6, Valtteri Salonen, HusaBerg, FIN, 107 7, Fabrizio Dini, Yamaha, ITA, 105 8, Antoine Meo, Husqvarna, FRA, 91 9, Alessandro Zanni, Honda, ITA, 78 10, Fabio Mossini, Honda, ITA, 77 11, Simo Kirssi, BMW, FIN, 76 12, Nicolas Paganon, Aprilia, FRA, 62 13, Jari Juha Mattila, Honda, FIN, 59 14, Nicolas Deparrois, GasGas, FRA, 58 15, Jean Francois Goblet, BMW, BEL, 37 Manufacturer Standings 14/06/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, KTM, 184 2, Yamaha, 183 3, HusaBerg, 147 4, Husqvarna, 116 5, TM, 110 6, Honda, 106 7, BMW, 95 8, Aprilia, 62 9, GasGas, 58 10, Suzuki, 26 11, Beta, 21