The beautiful track of Melk (Austria) hosted of the last round of the 2015 European Supermoto S2 Championship. Riders from nine different nations gathered to race in front of over 5500 spectators that filled the tribunes. Even though the title chase was over as Marc Reiner Schmidt had already won the Championship at the latest round in Villena (Spain), the fight for the podium was still open for three riders: Italians Fabrizio Bartolini and Diego Monticelli and Finnish Toni Klem, all divided by only 10 points.
Czech rider Petr Vorlicek (Suzuki) managed to defend his pole-position after the start of the first race in front of Austrian Manuel Hagleitner (KTM). Finnish rider Toni Klem (TM) was in the front pack ready to battle but due to a crash in the second lap he allowed Fabrizio Bartolini (Honda) to advance into third place. Close battle during the race, first and second being split by only a couple of tenths of a second. More mistakes in the following laps from Toni Klem stopped him from finishing with the top riders. Towards the end of the race it was Italian Yuri Guardalà (Honda) who managed to overtake riders one by one until he found himself leading the race with only two laps to go. Second was Petr Vorlicek while third came local rider Manuel Hagleitner (KTM) in the cheers of the crowd. Bartolini finished fourth to secure his second position in the Championship, while Klem ended up finally on seventh, just in front of Diego Monticelli (Honda).
In the second race it was again Czech rider Petr Vorlicek (Suzuki) who came up leading the pack, closely followed by Yuri Guardalà (Honda) and Austrian Manuel Hagleitner (KTM). He did not manage to hold on to the lead for a long time as a short shower started just after the start and the local rider Hagleitner was really pushing towards the first place without fear. Vorlicek was afterwards relegated to fourth position as both Italians Yuri Guardalà (Honda) and Lorenzo Lapini (Honda) made a pass on him. Toni Klem (TM) could not stand the pressure and was out after the first lap failing to make it to the podium in the general standings. Fabrizio Bartolini (Honda) made it to the finish in sixth just after Diego Monticelli (Honda) securing his second place in the Championship.
On the podium of the race in Austria we had the local rider Manuel Hagleitner (KTM) who tied in points (45), second place for Yuri Guardalà (Honda), and third place for Petr Vorlicek (Suzuki) with 40 points.
FIM-Europe Vice-president Jan Stovicek handed out the medals for the General Standing of the European S2 Supermoto Championship: German Marc Reiner Schmidt became European Supermoto Champion with a total of 247 points, followed by Italian Fabrizio Bartolini (total of 200 points) and Italian Diego Monticelli (191 points).
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/134
