After claiming the British Championship earlier in the week, Tai Woffinden has managed to cap off a wonderful start to his second Grand Prix campaign with a GP win in Prague. It means that Woffinden has become the first British winner of a GP in six years. There was an even rarer moment when Woffinden temporarily went top of the standings after his second heat, but now currently sits second.
The Championship leader before Prague, Tomasz Gollob, had a nightmare of a meeting. He only managed to gain three points and that means he's now fifth in the standings. After his two victories, Emil Sayfutdinov managed to make it to his third consecutive final and now leads the standings in honour of his late dad.
The final was possibly the most eventful heat of the night as the Prague track didn't really allow for some top drawer Speedway action. Woffinden and Sayfutdinov were joined by Nicki Pedersen, who managed to get through the night despite having broken his arm in the last meeting, and Krzysztof Kasprzak, who managed to put in his first real good performance of this season.
The tapes may have been a little longer in going up and Sayfutdinov went off the line too quickly. The Russian unfortunately touched the tapes and he immediately knew that he would be excluded from the restart, preventing him from potentially winning three consecutive GP events. Woffinden managed to take full advantage of the largely unstoppable inside gate to control the final. Pedersen would miss the first corner of the last lap and the Dane hit the deck, the last thing he needed with his broken arm. But as the final was in its last lap, Woffinden and Kasprzak were allowed to continue to the chequered flag where Woffy was crowned champion.
Kasprzak managed to get to the final despite having all the odds against him. Sayfutdinov managed to win the first semi-final from gate two. Before this, only two people had managed to get second from the unforgiving fourth gate, but Kasprzak managed to make that three, leaving Freddie Lindgren third from gate one and Andreas Jonsson fourth from the also unenviable gate three.
Matej Zagar made a huge tactical error in the second semi-final. After Woffinden picked gate two, which he won from, the Slovenian picked gate three over gate one. This proved fatal as Zagar finished fourth with Pedersen gleefully taking second from gate one and Jaroslaw Hampel finished third from gate four.
Zagar had a great meeting and that began with the opening heat victory from the inside gate. Gollob was second at the start of the final lap, but somehow he allowed Niels-Kristian Iversen and Ales Dryml, who replaced the injured Darcy Ward for this meeting, to overtake him. Many feared Kasprzak's poor start to the GP series was going to continue when he could only finish third from the inside gate in heat two, Pedersen opened his night with a win with Sayfutdinov taking second from gate four and the wildcard Josef Franc was left at the back. Woffinden won his first heat from gate one but Hampel also started badly with fourth place from gate two, Lindgren took second with Jonsson third. The fourth heat was taken by Chris Holder with Greg Hancock second from gate one, Martin Vaculik was third with Antonio Lindback continuing his poor form with a fourth place.
Lindback made that back to back fourth places in heat five, but this time from gate one as opposed to gate four, as Zagar made it back to back wins, with Kasprzak second and Lindgren third. Woffinden also made it two wins from two with Holder second. Heat seven was taken by Hampel from the inside gate with Hancock second, Pedersen third and Gollob again coming last, coming in order of their gates. Vaculik wasn't going to have an easy time from gate four in heat eight, but he wouldn't even finish as his chain came off from the start and the Slovakian was left marooned. Sayfutdinov took his first heat of the night with Jonsson looking much better in second and Dryml third from the inside gate.
Franc false started in heat nine, but he didn't touch the tapes so all four riders were back for the restart. But the Czech failed to take advantage of the inside gate and ended up fourth behind Vaculik, Zagar and Hampel. Kasprzak managed to win heat ten with Hancock third behind Jonsson but ahead of Iversen. Lindgren was two laps away from winning his first heat of the season in heat-11, but Sayfutdinov overtook him on the second lap to claim his second win, Gollob took his point of the night with Holder fourth from gate four. Woffinden would be one of only three riders to win from gate three all night and he managed to do it twice, it first came in heat-12 with Lindback finishing second to score his first points of the night, Pedersen came fourth from gate four behind Dryml.
Pedersen recovered though to take heat-13 from the inside gate, Holder finished fourth from gate two with Zagar claiming second from gate four and Jonsson took third. Sayfutdinov made it three wins in a row in heat-14 and he managed it from gate three, Lindgren took second with Iversen third and Hampel fourth. Woffinden managed to top that by making it four wins out of four in heat-15, also from gate three, with Gollob again finishing fourth, from gate two, Vaculik took second with Kasprzak third. Heat-16 saw Lindgren finally win his first heat of the season, from gate one.
Heat-17 was the battle between the two most in form riders, Woffinden from gate four and Sayfutdinov from gate two. If the meeting wasn't about the gates, this could have been an amazing heat but Sayfutdinov took it to make it four wins in a row, stopping Woffinden's perfect night. Woffinden took third behind Hancock with Zagar finishing fourth from gate one. Heat-18 was taken by Iversen ahead of Lindgren, Pedersen and Vaculik. Gollob's best result came in heat-19 where he finished second from gate one, behind Jonsson. The final heat was taken by Hampel from gate three with Holder second, Kasprzak third and Dryml fourth.
After three fantastic meetings, Sayfutdinov deservedly leads the Championship standings after four events. But it's only by a point as Woffinden now sits second on 54. There's a eight point gap between the Brit and Hampel with Pedersen fourth on 44 and Gollob now fifth on 43. Champion Holder is sixth on 40 with Zagar having an impressive season, seventh on 38. Hancock completes the top eight with 34 points.
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