Czech Grand Prix Results

TONY Rickardsson produced yet another remarkable performance in Prague on Saturday night to complete his fifth Grand Prix win of the season and his fourth in succession. Rickardsson simply outclassed the opposition in the FIM Grand Prix of the Czech Republic at the Marketa Stadium, taking the chequered flag ahead of Bjarne Pedersen and Jaroslaw Hampel with defending champion Jason Crump back in fourth place. Rickardsson now has a massive 54 point lead over Crump and could clinch his sixth individual World title in his home country of Sweden on August 13. “I really don’t know why things are going so well,” said Rickardsson. “I am sure I will be beaten sometime but at the moment I am just enjoying myself.” While Rickardsson is the model of consistency - with five wins and a second in six Grand Prix rounds - his opponents are struggling. Hampel has actually finished on the rostrum three times this season but he missed two GPs through injury and managed only eight points in Copenhagen. Bjarne Pedersen also has three rostrum places to his credit but in the other rounds has scored four, three and three, After Friday’s practice had been washed out by rain, Prague was remarkably dry on Saturday but with wet weather forecast the organisers scrapped the pre-meeting parade and rapidly sped through the qualifying heats. Britain’s Scott Nicholls was outstanding, dropping only one point from five starts to finish on 14. Given first choice of gate positions in his semi-final and with Rickardsson starting in the other, he was strongly favoured to reach his first final of the year. But the Coventry star never recovered from a poor start and trailed home third behind Hampel and Bjarne Pedersen. Crump, who had only scraped into the semis, inflicted a rare defeat on Rickardsson but both went through to the last four. Rickardsson was quickly away in the final and never looked like being caught while Hampel spent most of the four laps keeping Crump at bay. Bjarne Pedersen has now moved up to fourth place, behind Rickardsson, Crump and Nicki Pedersen, while Leigh Adams, Antonio Lindback, Greg Hancock and Hampel currently fill the other automatic qualifying places for 2006. Nicholls has moved up to ninth by virtue of his 14 points, his best display of the series to date.

FIM Grand Prix of the Czech Republic: T.Rickardsson (Sweden) 25, B.Pedersen (Denmark), 20, J.Hampel (Poland) 18, J.Crump (Australia) 16, S.Nicholls (Great Britain) 14, N.Pedersen (Denmark) 10, T.Gollob (Poland) 9, R.Sullivan (Australia) 9, L.Adams (Australia) 8, A.Jonsson (Sweden) 8, G.Hancock (USA) 7, A.Lindback (Sweden) 6, L.Richardson (Great Britain) 4, H.Andersen (Denmark) 3, A.Dryml (Czech Republic) 3, T.Chrzanowski (Poland) 1.

Overall scorers: T.Rickardsson 145, J.Crump 91, N.Pedersen 78, B.Pedersen 66, L.Adams 64, A.Lindback 59, G.Hancock 58, J.Hampel 56, S.Nicholls 48, H.Andersen 46, T.Gollob 45, A.Jonsson 40, R.Sullivan 38, L.Richardson 26, T.Chrzanowski 20.