Freddie Wins at Home

Freddie Lindgren's first Grand Prix victory has come in front of his crowd in the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg. The Swede almost didn't make it into the semi-finals as he only accumulated seven points in his five heats, but he managed to squeeze through courtesy of Jaroslaw Hampel finishing fourth in the final heat.

Greg Hancock finished second behind Lindgren and that was enough to see him move two points ahead in the overall series standings. Chris Holder pushes himself into the top four after finishing third with the wildcard Thomas H Jonasson finishing fourth after a controversial semi-final.

The second semi-final went smoothly with Holder and Lindgren beating Emil Sayfutdinov and Andreas Jonsson. But the first semi-final ended in dramatic fashion. Hancock was the clear winner but, behind him, Jonasson was second up until the final corner. The Swede had slowed down a little and Nicky Pedersen, who had won four out of his five heats, went into the side of him causing a crash. The Dane crossed the finish line but was subsequently disqualified however, the man in fourth, Jason Crump, went off the track at the end to avoid getting caught up in the collision. So, with only one rider actually finishing the heat, it was a surprise to see the referee let the result stand with Jonasson claiming second place.

Before all that, Nicky Pedersen began his night with a win over Jonasson in the opening heat. Heat two saw Sweden play Poland as Antonio Lindback and Lindgren faced Thomasz Gollob and Hampel, Lindback won with Hampel second and Gollob last. Hancock also started his night with a fourth place as Sayfutdinov took the  third heat. Heat four was also a potential World Cup match as Crump and Holder of Australia took on Hans Andersen and Bjarne Pedersen of Denmark. It was a one-two for Australia with Crump getting the glory.

Kenneth Bjerre became the fifth winner from five heats before Sayfutdinov made it two wins from two ahead of  Jonasson, Lindgren and Crump. Gollob's poor start to the night continued as he went down in heat seven, the heat continued though and Jonsson claimed a win in front of his home crowd. Lindback was then too eager in the eighth heat, causing a restart in which all four riders took part with Nicky Pedersen also making it two wins from two.

Britain's Chris Harris came last in his first two heats and would remain pointless after packing up in heat nine Lindgren picked up his only heat win of the night, excluding the final. Hancock took his first heat of the night in the tenth with Peter Ljung also claiming a win in front of his home crowd after initially false starting in heat twelve. Nicky Pedersen then made it three out of three with Gollob claiming his first point of the night.

But Gollob battled back to win his only heat of the night in the 13th ahead of Crump, Hancock and Harris. Jonsson won his second heat of the night with Jonasson claiming his fourth successive second place. After three second places, Holder came out to win heat 15 before Nicky Pedersen made it four in four.

Harris then ended his night on a high scoring his only points via a victory. Jonasson went down at the start on heat 18, all four riders restarted with Holder snatching the win over Gollob. Hancock then won his second heat in the penultimate race before Crump followed suite, with Nicky Pedersen in second.

The second place sees Hancock move up to 58 points, two ahead of Nicky Pedersen. Crump sits in third on 55 with fellow Australian, Holder on 52. Gollob is now points off the lead on 49.