| With a ninety-point lead at the start of the day, Bou’s double win ahead of his compatriot and team-mate Gabriel Marcelli means he can sew-up the title at the penultimate round in the Netherlands in one week’s time, although his rivals put up a fierce fight over a very technical course where the riders were challenged by a series of super-steep bankings, loose sandy soil and huge, sharp-edged rocks.
After winning Saturday’s Super Test to determine starting order, Bou lost an uncharacteristic two on the very first section of the day that could have put him on the back foot, but the record-shattering champion thrives on pressure and he remained feet-up for the remainder of the race until he needed a solitary dab on the twelfth and final hazard that, with the addition of a single time penalty, put him on four.
Bou’s main challenge came from Marcelli and Jaime Busto (Beta) with the pair neck-and-neck until they reached the town where the manmade section eight took a maximum from Busto. Marcelli then incurred a five on section eleven that allowed Busto to close to within a mark, but he soaked up the pressure to clean the final hazard to finish on twelve as Busto parted with another dab to end the race on fourteen.
Just a single mark adrift of Busto, Britain’s Harry Hemingway (Beta) was a fighting fourth before a seven-mark gap to Italy’s Matteo Grattarola (Beta) who in turn was four clear of Spain’s Miquel Gelabert (Honda) riding the sole electric machine in the class.
Busto got a taste of victory when he topped the timed Super Pole section to decide starting order for the Final and he matched Bou clean-for-clean through the first five hazards before the reigning champion produced a moment of magic to clean the challenging sixth section where a triple step from a minimal run-up had taken maximums from most of the field.
Busto surrendered his share of the lead here with a hard-fought three that allowed Marcelli – who along with Gelabert had needed just a single dab on section six – to draw level before the race concluded with the Super Final.
Bou took a dab on the steep climb and rock step of section seven and then picked up a maximum on section ten before regaining his composure to run out winner on seven, including a time penalty, with Marcelli taking second on a total of fifteen and Gelabert a fine third on nineteen, two clear of Hemingway with Grattarola fifth on twenty-eight.
“It has not been easy because all the riders were pushing super-hard and the weather has been so hot,” said Bou. “It was difficult to fight to the end of both races, but I’m super-happy with the result.”
Busto struggled in the Super Final, parting with seventeen marks in the first five sections before a rear wheel puncture forced him to miss the final section and contributed to his six time penalties that dropped him to sixth on thirty-one as Marcelli moved into second in the championship. |
