Thomasz Gollob was back his imperious best with his 22nd GP victory in Malilla, Sweden. But with just two rounds remaining, Chris Holder has taken the overall lead in the standings with an eight point advantage over reigning World Champion Greg Hancock. Holder earned this by finishing second behind Gollob in the final. Antonio Lindback made it three finals in row and finished third just like he did two weeks ago in Cardiff. Nicky Pedersen found himself in hot water at the start of the meeting but regained his composure to finish fourth.
Lindback win the first semi-final ahead of Nicky Pedersen, with the Dane now just three points behind Hancock, Emil Sayfutdinov came third with Hancock trailing at the back. The second semi-final saw Holder take the chequered flag ahead of Gollob with Freddie Lindgren third and Jason Crump fourth.
The night started with Holder only managing third with Sayfutdinov winning the opening heat. The Swedish crowd lifted the roof when Lindgren won the second heat with wildcard Thomas H Jonasson finishing last. That was followed by another Swede, Peter Ljung, winning heat three ahead of Nicky Pedersen. Unfortunately, Andreas Jonsson couldn't make it three Swedish winners in a row and only finished last with Gollob beating Hancock to the chequered flag, Jaroslaw Hampel's return to action from his injury saw him finish third.
Drama then struck in heat five. Sayfutdinov won his second heat but behind him, Nicky Pedersen ended up forcing Jonsson into the fence in his plight to keep hold of third. But Jonsson had a big impact and had to be taken away in an ambulance. Hopefully everything will be fine, but Pedersen didn't believe his exclusion was warranted and performed a foul mouthed tirade that, quite frankly, lost the respect of many.
After the lengthy break due to the precautions taken for Jonsson, Crump would win the sixth heat. That was followed by Hancock winning heat seven before Lindback beat Holder and Gollob to win heat eight. Gollob recovered from that third place to win his second heat of the night in the ninth heat. Lindback then made it two heats in two, with Hancock finishing fourth, before Nicky Pedersen regained his composure to win the eleventh heat. Holder won heat-12 to put himself level on points with Hancock, substitute Kim Nilsson came fourth.
Hampel was on the verge of winning heat-13 but the cruel finger of fate made him pack up just after the last corner, allowing Lindback to win his third consecutive heat. Heat-14 had to be restarted after Ljung found himself on the floor following the concertina effect. The restart saw Jonasson take it, proving why he will be a big hit in the future. Crump came second with substitute Linus Sundstrom fourth. Gollob went onto win his third heat of the night in the 15th with Lindgren winning heat-16, Holder came third with Hancock fourth.
Hancock recovered from his last place to win heat-17 which was enough to squeeze into the semi-finals. Gollob and Lindback then traded their fourth wins of the meeting before Chris Holder took the final heat to keep his lead over Hancock.
This means that with two meetings remaining, Holder has 134 points with Hancock on 126, Nicky Pedersen is still within reach on 123 points. The win for Gollob has moved himself back into fourth on 114 with Crump three points behind. Sayfutdinov sits on 107 with Lindgren now joining the 100 club with his semi-final appearance. Lindback's great form sees him now look fairly cemented into eighth place on 96.
Jonsson's injury was extremely ill-timed and now falls out of the top eight on 77. Hans Andersen has overtaken Chris Harris into tenth, but the pair are only separated by a point. Martin Vaculik had a fairly quiet meeting by his standards and sits on 55 points with Hampel on 52. Bjarne Pedersen and Ljung are level on 49 with Kenneth Bjerre finishing last on 41.
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