FIM FIAT BRITISH GRAND PRIX PRESS RELEASE - SATURDAY JUNE 11

TONY Rickardsson took a sizeable step towards equalling the legendary Ivan Mauger’s record six World titles when he won an incident-packed British Grand Prix in front of a 38,000 plus crowd at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

The Swedish star made it three GP wins out of four this season, and with all his major rivals performing well below par, he has moved a hefty 32 points clear at the head of the leaderboard.

As Rickardsson celebrated winning a spectacular final ahead of Poland’s Jaroslaw Hampel, who was making a successful return from a hand injury, and Danes Bjarne Pedersen and Hans Andersen, the championship aspirations of Jason Crump, Nicki Pedersen and Leigh Adams were left floundering. Defending champion Crump, who started the night 11 points adrift of Rickardsson, was sensationally excluded in three of his five rides to muster just four points in one of his worst GP results for years, while Pedersen missed the cut for the semi-finals with six points and Adams also failed to reach the last eight on seven points.

The meeting was littered with falls and even Rickardsson himself bounced off the air-fence in his first race after clashing with David Norris. The British wild-card was excluded and Rickardsson dusted himself down to win the re-run and lay the foundations for another memorable result.

It was the 17th GP win of his career and his second at Cardiff, where he also won in 2001, but Rickardsson said modestly: “I felt I was struggling a little in the middle of the meeting and was getting slower and slower while the rest of the boys were getting faster and faster.

“I then changed back to the bike I used in my first race and it worked better. As for the final, I have been riding for 15 years, doing between 500 and 600 races a season, and I am now 34, but I think I did the best first corner of my life. I just put my back wheel against the fence and it worked perfectly.

“Once again it was a fantastic show at Cardiff, and it has become what Monaco is for the Formula One drivers. I am very happy to have finished the meeting standing on top of the rostrum again, and my aim now is simple, to win as many of the remaining GPs as I can.”

Hampel, who had missed the last two GPs, looked fast throughout and deserved to be runner-up on the night after finishing level on 12 points with Rickardsson and Sweden’s Andreas Jonsson after the qualifying heats.

Both Jonsson and Andersen revived indifferent GP campaigns by reaching the last eight, Andersen going on to claim fourth place after finishing behind fellow countryman Bjarne Pedersen in both the semi-final and final. Scott Nicholls was the pick of the three Brits in the meeting, making his first semi-final appearance of the season after bagging nine points. He then fell in the second semi-final when in third place.

Lee Richardson won one terrific duel with Nicki Pedersen but he only scored five points and has now dropped below Tomasz Chrzanowski at the foot of the GP standings after the Pole had his best GP so far with seven points.

Wild-card Norris had the crowd on their feet by passing Crump in heat 14, but he was unable to repeat his thrilling performance of 2004.

British GP scores: Tony Rickardsson 25, Jaroslaw Hampel 20, Bjarne Pedersen 18, Hans Andersen 16, Andreas Jonsson 12, Scott Nicholls 9, Tomasz Gollob 8, Antonio Lindback 8, Leigh Adams 7, Tomasz Chrzanowski 7, Greg Hancock 6, Nicki Pedersen 6, Lee Richardson 5, Jason Crump 4, David Norris 4, Ryan Sullivan 1

Overall GP standings: Rickardsson 95, Crump 63, N.Pedersen 52, Adams 49, B.Pedersen 43, Andersen 35, Lindback 35, Hancock 31, Gollob 30, Hampel 30, Nicholls 30, Jonsson 24, Sullivan 24, Chrzanowski 17, Richardson 16