EMX Open European Championship: round one of two in Turkey
EMX Open Championship leader Davide De Bortoli secured his first overall victory of the season in Afyonkarahisar, as he gets one step closer to wrapping up the EMX Open title with a round to go.
In the first race, it was De Bortoli who took the holeshot from Nicolas Dercourt of Honda SR Motoblouz ahead of JD Gunnex KTM Racing’s Tomasz Wysocki and Simone Croci.
Croci wasted no time to get around Wysocki, while Dercourt was keeping close to De Bortoli for the win. De Bortoli then set the fastest lap of the race as the gap opened up to 2.254 seconds though Dercourt was able to bring that back and get onto the Italian’s back wheel as he searched for a way through.
The pair battled for the win for most of the race as they had a little bit of a gap to Croci and Wysocki who were in their own battle for third. Krisztian Tompa was having a good ride in fifth ahead of Matej Jaros and local rider Mustafa Cetin.
With three laps to go, the gap was at 3.089 and as the race came to a close Dercourt came under fire from a hard-charging Croci who was able to get the Frenchman on the final lap to finish second. Dercourt was forced to settle for third while De Bortoli took the win.
The second race saw Dercourt not line up for the heat which mean he was out of the podium fight and would end up losing vital points in terms of the championship.
As the gate dropped for the second heat, De Bortoli was first out of the start once again, while Croci was right there in second ahead of Wysocki and Tompa.
Sakir Senkalayci dropped two positions on the opening lap which allowed Batuhan Demiryol and Mehmet Celik through.
De Bortoli then edged out by 7.367 as Croci remained second with Wysocki slowly closing the gap to second place. For the rest of the race De Bortoli was fully in control keeping a steady gap to second and third as Corci and Wysocki battled for second.
Eventually, with four laps remaining, Wysokci was able to get around Croci to move into second position, with the Polish rider then setting his sights on chasing down the race leader.
In the end De Bortoli was the race winner, with Wysocki second and Croci third, ahead of Tompa and Jaros who rounded out the top five.
With two race wins, Davide De Bortoli stood on the top step of the podium for the very first time this season, Simone Croci joined him alongside on the second step, while Wysocki celebrated his first podium finish with third overall.
De Bortoli now takes the championship to the final round on Tuesday with a 37-points advantage over Nicolas Dercourt and Simone Croci who is just four points off second place.
