Latest victory for Bou in Italy
The Repsol Honda rider earns his fifth consecutive win, with Gabriel Marcelli fifth in the first race in Sestriere
After twenty years off the calendar, Sestriere hosts the sixth round of the TrialGP World Championship this weekend. On Saturday in the Italian town, Toni Bou took victory and extended his lead over Jaime Busto in the overall standings. Gabriel Marcelli finished in fifth position and maintains third place in the championship.
From the first lap, Bou demonstrated his high level, taking the lead and picking up just three penalty points from the 12 zones. On the second run, the Repsol Honda Trial Team rider kept up his form and claimed an eighth victory of the season -his fifth in a row.
Marcelli had a difficult day. He started out fighting for podium positions, but his second lap saw him make mistakes in the closing sections that finally took him to fifth position.
After the results of the first race in Sestriere, Bou remains leader with 211 points and Marcelli is third with 144 points. On Sunday, the TrialGP of Italy gets underway at 9am local time.
Toni Bou 1
CHAMPIONSHIP: 1ST
“I’m very happy with how the day went. My feeling was very positive after the work that the team did to get the bike ready for this weekend. From the first lap I felt very comfortable, although on the second I made a few too many mistakes. This result is very positive for the championship: Jaime is very strong and we have to continue in the same way. Tomorrow the objective will be to fight for victory again.”
Gabriel Marcelli 38
CHAMPIONSHIP: 3RD
“Things didn’t go particularly well. I think I rode quite well, but on the second lap it didn’t quite work out for me. I made a few more mistakes and that meant that I went from fighting for the podium positions to dropping down to fifth. The positive is that I’m happy with the overall feeling. We continue in third position in the championship and the objective tomorrow will be to fight for the podium.”
Takahisa Fujinami
Team Manager
“From the beginning Toni made the difference with respect to the rest of the riders. I’m very happy with this victory and the 19-point advantage we have over Jaime, which gives us more peace of mind. The team have done a great job. As for Gabri, we did not expect this result. On the first lap he fought for the podium positions, but the mistakes on the second pass brought him down to fifth position. He remains third in the championship, but has to trust himself more to get back to the top. Tomorrow we will try to get on the podium with both riders.”
