The Trial World Championship arrived in San Marino for the fourth Grand Prix of the calendar, with two scoring races. It had been twelve years since the World Championship had landed in this small state located in the central area of Italy, so most of the pilots had no information about the typology of the terrain and the areas.
Most of the areas were located in the vicinity of a dry river, where there were also mostly rounded white stones with very little grip. The rains that fell in the previous days and on both days of the race left an even more difficult terrain if possible, with water inside the areas and mud on those complicated stones.
With these ingredients, everyone expected a trial with high scores and a lot of uncertainty, since there were many traps between the passes and a good part of the sections seemed difficult to set with the “nonstop” regulations, which forced the riders to take maximum risks.
GP TRIAL SAN MARINO – TRIALGP SATURDAY
On the first day, Toni Bou proved to be on another level. Throughout the first pass through the twelve zones he hardly made any mistakes, leaving five “ones” and sacrificing a fiasco in the last one to avoid more time penalties. Even so, he added three points to his partial, adding a total of 13 points. Behind, a double tie between Gabriel Marcelli and Jaime Busto, with 27 points.
With this comfortable lead, Toni had to concentrate on managing the gap and securing a win that would be key. If we take into account that the most selective zone was the last one, the margin of their rivals to improve that ten-point partial was very difficult, almost impossible.
In this lap all the favourites improved. Toni Bou consolidated his victory on Saturday and Marcelli managed to scratch three points from Busto in the overall race, after marking differences in zones two and twelve. Therefore, the first two positions went to the Repsol Honda Team riders, with Jaime completing the podium. A result that gave Toni Bou an extra breathing room, who got an extra lead at the top of the general classification.
Fourth place went to Matteo Grattarola, who was training with Beta in 2023, followed by Adam Raga who completed the top 5.
GP TRIAL SAN MARINO – TRIALGP SUNDAY
The heavy rains that fell between Saturday and Sunday left the areas with even less grip and more mud. It was clear, therefore, that the scores would go up and the race would open up. The best start to this second day was Jaime Busto, who, despite starting with a fiasco, closed the first pass through the zones with a spectacular record of 21 points, followed by a double tie between Bou and Grattarola with 30 points.
On the second lap Toni Bou went all out, well aware that he had to recover or he could end up giving in to Jaime Busto and leave the championship at an uncertain point again. The Honda rider managed to cut that gap in half after passing zone two cleanly, although it was not until zone ten, where Jaime left himself a fiasco, where Toni achieved an advantage of only one point, which he was able to manage until the end of the race, thus adding the second victory of the weekend over his main rival.
On this occasion the podium was completed by Matteo Grattarola, who after competing in the first three GPs of the season with Vertigo, returned to the controls of a Beta EVO Factory after terminating his contract by mutual agreement with the brand. That good feeling of the Italian rider materialized with his two best positions so far in the championship.
Fourth place for Adam Raga, followed by Aniol Gelabert, who overtook Gabriel Marcelli in the points tiebreak. Despite this, the Galician rider remains third in the general classification, a position that will be played for the remainder of the championship with Raga himself.
GP TRIAL SAN MARINO – TRIAL2
In the Trial2 category we witnessed on Saturday the triumph of the reigning World Champion of the category, Sondre Haga, who once again found the best sensations and signed a solid victory. Behind, very evenly matched, Jack Peace and Pablo Suárez, who beat the French private rider Hugo Dufrese in the jump-off. The leader to date, Billy Green, fell to eighth position and lost some key points for the championship.
On Sunday the victory went to Sondre Haga’s teammate, Jack Dance, who added a great victory in his first season as a Trial2 rider. A podium where he was accompanied by Sondre Haga. Closing the podium, Billy Green corrected the deviation of the weekend.
Now, the leader of the category is Jack Peace with five points over Billy Green, who in turn is twenty ahead of Pablo Suárez. Arnau Farré and Sondre Haga are still in the fight, although with more remote options of entering the fight for the title.
GP TRIAL SAN MARINO – TRIAL3
In Trial3 overwhelming superiority of George Hemingway, brother of the reigning world champion of the category. After the double victory in San Marino, George is now leading the category, ahead of Jone Sandvik, who stood on the podium on Sunday alongside Romeo Piquet. On Saturday, it was Alfie Lampkin and Jaime Galloway who joined George on the podium.
NEXT STOP: ANDORRA GP
The Trial World Championship moves directly to Andorra, where the fifth Grand Prix of the season will be held this coming weekend in Sant Julià de Loria.
TRIAL-GP CLASSIFICATION San Marino Day 1
TRIAL GP san marino · D1 · 2023
- TONI BOU (MONTESA)
- GABRIEL MARCELLI (MONTESA)
- JAIME BUSTO (GASGAS)
- MATTEO GRATTAROLA (VERTIGO)
- ADAM RAGA (TRRS)
- ANIOL GELABERT (BETA)
- MIQUEL GELABERT (VERTIGO)
- JERONI FAJARDO (SHERCO)
- LUCA PETRELLA (GASGAS)
- BENOIT BINCAZ (SHERCO)
- JORGE CASALES (SCORPA)
TRIAL GP san marino · D2 · 2023
- TONI BOU (MONTESA)
- JAIME BUSTO (GASGAS)
- MATTEO GRATTAROLA (VERTIGO)
- ADAM RAGA (TRRS)
- ANIOL GELABERT (BETA)
- GABRIEL MARCELLI (MONTESA)
- MIQUEL GELABERT (VERTIGO)
- LUCA PETRELLA (GASGAS)
- JORGE CASALES (SCORPA)
- BENOIT BINCAZ (SHERCO)
- JERONI FAJARDO (SHERCO)
