GASGAS ENJOYS HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL ENDUROGP OF SWEDEN.
LAIA SANZ DOMINATES THE WOMEN’S CLASS WHILE ANDREA VERONA PUTS IN A CHAMPION’S PERFORMANCE TO MAINTAIN HIS ENDURO1 SERIES LEAD.
It was a weekend of fast and frantic action at round four of the 2021 FIM EnduroGP World Championship, with Laia Sanz topping the Women’s class on both days of racing. In dominant form throughout the entire weekend, the Spanish ace enjoyed a maximum points haul, heading home to Spain with the Women’s class lead. For our Enduro1 star Andrea Verona, crashes prevented him from finishing any higher than third on the opening day, before he put in a champion’s performance to secure the day two E1 win and claim second overall in EnduroGP.
Arriving at the EnduroGP of Sweden tied on points at the top of the Women’s championship standings, Laia Sanz had only one thing on her mind – leave Skovde with a firm hold of the Women’s title chase. After topping the timesheets on Thursday night’s Super Test (the race ran from Thursday to Saturday!), Laia was in full control throughout the opening day of racing, claiming a convincing victory.
For day two, the Spanish ace frustratingly lacked the energy needed to push forward, opting for a consistent pace in order to secure another strong result. Nevertheless, Laia won three of the six tests to claim a second day win in Sweden and now sits on top of the series standings with a comfortable eight-point lead.
Fresh from his Enduro1 clean sweep last weekend in Estonia, Andrea Verona arrived in Sweden focused on delivering more winning rides. Perhaps a little too eager to continue from where he left off, the Italian frustratingly hit the deck multiple times early on during day one. Relying upon his impressive pace to bring him back up to the sharp end of the results by the end of the day, Andrea would ultimately claim third in E1.
Hitting the reset button ahead the second day of racing, Verona was back to his best. On pace with his rivals from the start, more importantly he kept things rubber side down with the 22-year-old engaged in a day-long battle with countryman Davide Guarneri for overall victory. With the outcome of day two coming down to the results of the final test of the weekend, Verona dug deep to take the win and top the Enduro1 class by just over nine seconds. In doing so he also claimed a runner-up EnduroGP result.
The EnduroGP series will now take a summer break before resuming for round five on October 9-10 in Germany where Andrea will return to Enduro1 action. For Laia, the third and final round of the 2021 FIM Women’s Enduro World Championship takes place in France on October 16-17.
Laia Sanz:“It’s been another good weekend for me and overall I’m really happy with my results. I would have liked for some of the tests to be a little slower and more technical, especially the extreme tests, but it was the same for everyone. Like the first round, my fitness isn’t quite where it needed to be in order to be able to push on the second day, so I had to maintain a strong but steady pace. In terms of my championship, it’s been a great weekend and now I have a nice gap at the top of the standings with one round to go in France.”
Andrea Verona:“I’m super happy with how my weekend ended. On day one I had too many crashes but despite that, I still wasn’t too far from the win. To turn it around on the second day and take the win, this was really huge for me to bounce back like that. With it going down to the last test, I had nothing to lose and I gave it full gas. I gave it everything and to take the day win after a close battle all day feels amazing. My speed put me on the podium in EnduroGP as well, so for me this second day was really special after a difficult opening day.”
Results – 2021 EnduroGP World Championship, Round 4, Day 1
Enduro1
1. Davide Guarneri (Fantic) 1:09:42.55
2. Samuele Bernadini (Honda) 1:09:56.03
3. Andrea Verona (GASGAS) 1:09:58.78
EnduroGP
1. Wil Ruprecht (TM) 1:08:41.04
2. Josep Garcia (KTM) 1:09:01.29
3. Brad Freeman (Beta) 1:09:18.08
6. Andrea Verona (GASGAS) 1:09:58.78
Enduro Women
1. Laia Sanz (GASGAS) 53:32.07
2. Jane Daniels (Fantic) 54:22.05
3. Mireia Badia (GASGAS) 54:35.17
Results – 2021 EnduroGP World Championship, Round 4, Day 2
Enduro1
1. Andrea Verona (GASGAS) 1:07:45.51
2. Davide Guarneri (Fantic) 1:07:54.82
3. Samuele Bernardini (Honda) 1:09:58.75
EnduroGP
1. Brad Freeman (Beta) 1:07:41.18
2. Andrea Verona (GASGAS) 1:07:45.51
3. Davide Guarneri (Fantic) 1:07:54.82
Enduro Women
1. Laia Sanz (GASGAS) 52:56.08
2. Mireia Badia (GASGAS) 53:25.77
3. Jane Daniels (Fantic)
Championship Standings – 2021 EnduroGP World Championship, (after Round 4)
Enduro1
1. Andrea Verona (GASGAS) 152 points
2. Davide Guarneri (Fantic) 142
3. Samuele Bernardini (Honda) 109
EnduroGP
1. Brad Freeman (Beta) 146 points
2. Josep Garcia (KTM) 124
3. Wil Ruprecht (TM) 120
4. Andrea Verona (GASGAS) 102
Enduro Women
1. Laia Sanz (GASGAS) 75 points
2. Mireia Badia (GASGAS) 67
3. Jane Daniels (Fantic) 66
Text/Bild: GasGas