WHOWANTS IT THE MOST?
Italy
It was a superb result for the FIM section-marking team, as they got the standard of hazards near perfect. Rain was forecast on the day but they gambled correctly as it arrived in time for the podium after the action, making for a very close contest with 20 riders chasing 15 point-scoring positions.
Riding in front of a home crowd the defending champion Matteo Grattarola made it backto-back wins from the close of the 2018 season to the opening of the 2019 season with two very consistent lap scores to take a clear victory.
The surprise package in Italy came from the younger of the two Peace brothers, Jack. Two unexpected five-mark penalties kept him off the pace of Grattarola as he pushed last year’s series runner-up Toby Martyn down to the third step of the podium.
It was the second-lap score of 29 that kept Martyn away from the win as in fourth position his fellow Beta team rider, Luca Petrella, matched the winner Grattarola with a score of 14.
In fifth position was a disappointed Gabriel Marcelli who finished just in front Trial2 ‘Debutant’ Alexandre Ferrer.
RESULTS: 1: Matteo Grattarola (Honda-ITA) 27; 2: Jack Peace (Sherco-GBR) 43; 3: Toby Martyn (Beta-GBR) 48; 4: Luca Petrella
(Beta-ITA) 49; 5: Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa-ESP) 52; 6: Alexandre Ferrer (Sherco-FRA) 54; 7: Aniol Gelabert (Scorpa-ESP) 59; 8: Francesc Moret (Montesa-ESP) 59; 9: Hakon Pedersen (Gas Gas-NOR) 71; 10: Sergio Piardi (Beta-ITA) 74; 11: Sondre Haga (TRRS-NOR) 79; 12: Billy Green (Montesa-GBR) 79; 13: Lorenzo Gondola (Vertigo-ITA) 83; 14: Pablo Suarez (Gas Gas-ESP)
84; 15: Julien Perret (Gas GasFRA) 88.
Japan: Day one
With the best qualifying time under his belt Italy’s Matteo Grattarola was in the prime position to fight for the win. With wet conditions causing problems for many of the riders he used his experience to open up a single-mark lead over Toby Martyn on the opening lap. These two had pulled away from the rest of the riders with it all to play for on the second lap. As Matteo became more confident it was Martyn who was the loser, with three five-mark penalties making the difference in the final result.
The fight for the final step on the podium was between the two RG Trials Team riders Gabriel Marcelli and Francesc Moret. They were very close all day and when Marcelli stopped in the final section he thought it was all over but it was not, still beating his friend and rival by close two-mark advantage.
It’s worth noting Japan’s seventh-placed finisher Akira Shibata, who was showing just how much the host nation’s riders are improving and he out-pointed some of the hottest European riders as the weather changed to some intermittent sunshine at the close of the day.
RESULTS: 1: Grattarola 30; 2: Martyn 43; 3: Marcelli 51; 4: Moret 53; 5: Ferrer 63; 6: Petrella 65; 7: Akira Shibata (Vertigo-JPN) 70; 8: Gelabert 71; 9: Peace 72; 10: Haga 72; 11: Teo Colario (Gas Gas-FRA) 76; 12: Gondola 81; 13: Pedersen 82; 14: Green 83; 15: Piardi 94.
Japan: Day two
A better day greeted the riders as the rain made way for some overcast but fine, dry weather. With the hazards riding much better the scores came down and it was former TrialGP class rider Alexandre Ferrer who took the lead at the close of the opening lap from Gabriel Marcelli by two marks and the ever-prowling Matteo Grattarola. The Italian 2018 Trial2 World Champion parted with 15 marks lost, the same as his young arch rival Toby Martyn.
On the relatively easy opening hazard Toby had suffered a very heavy fall after a lapse in concentration but worked hard to put this behind him and get back in contention for the win. On the second lap Matteo made his push for victory, parting with just two marks as eventual winner Ferrer parted with three, the same as the battling Martyn.
In second position was Gabriel Marcelli who made sure he maintained in a challenging position in the championship.
As Spain’s Aniol Gelabert improved so did Great Britain’s young challengers for Trial2 honours Jack Peace and Billy Green, who scored a career-best eighth position in his first year in this class.
RESULTS: 1: Ferrer 11; 2: Marcelli 15; 3: Grattarola 17; 4: Martyn 18; 5: Moret 28; 6: Gelabert 28; 7: Peace 28; 8: Green 33; 9: Gondola 35; 10: Petrella 34; 11: Haga 35; 12: Colairo 46; 13: Pedersen 50; 14: Seiya Ujikawa (Gas Gas-JPN) 54; 15: Shibata 57
The Netherlands
It wasn’t just the heat that was the problem for the riders but Spain’s Gabriel Marcelli, who no one had an answer for; he was simply on fire. He knew he had to win and delivered. After the podium positions in Japan for second and third, he finally made it to the top step to keep his championship aspirations alive. In a victory that mirrored Toni Bou’s on the four-stroke machine, he parted with just a single mark but incurred nine time penalties.
Italy’s Matteo Grattarola made it a one-two for the four-strokes and retained his championship lead after a very ‘shaky’ opening lap where he parted with two fives. It was a similar story for Great Britain’s Toby Martyn who suffered a very heavy crash on section ten. The fight for the last step on the podium was very close once again, showing how competitive this class really is.
The biggest loser was the younger of the two Gelabert brothers, Aniol. A rider with immense talent he had been the fastest in qualifying but the time element unsettled him, resulting in him making some mistakes on ‘race’ day as he came home seventh.
RESULTS: 1: Marcelli 9; 2: Grattarola 20; 3: Martyn 26; 4: Moret 27; 5: Petrella 29; 6: Ferrer 29; 7: Aniol Gelabert 30; 8: Suarez 36; 9: Haga 43; 10: Pedersen 48; 11: Jack Peace 55; 12: Colairo 60; 13: Petrangeli 61; 14: Gondola 65; 15: Piardi 71.
Belgium
When a rider is showing some of his best form of his career, you know he is going to be hard to beat; and that was the problem at the Belgian round. In truth, the competition was all about who would finish second, such was the supremacy of the championship leader Matteo Grattarola. At the close of the first lap the nearest rider to him, some ten marks behind, was the talented Scorpa rider Aniol Gelabert.
The expected challenge from Great Britain’s Toby Martyn never got going and he became involved in the fight for second position between, believe it or not, four other riders: Marcelli who won the last time out, Gelabert, Moret and Ferrer. Separated by only a handful of marks Martyn worked hard all day to maintain his bid for the championship and the second-place reward was definitely a damage limitation exercise after a hard day. He knows he has to win soon if he is to challenge Grattarola but you must remember at each of these Trial2 rounds you have potentially eight riders who could win. This championship could go all the way to the last round, as it did in 2018.
RESULTS: 1: Grattarola 32; 2: Martyn 49; 3: Marcelli 54; 4: Gelabert 54; 5: Moret 55; 6: Ferrer 56; 7: Peace 63; 8: Green 69; 9: Pedersen 76; 10: Suarez 76; 11: Colairo 76; 12: Petrella 80; 13: Haga 81; 14: Gondola 84; 15: Eric Miquel (TRRS-ESP) 91.