Matteo Boncinelli became the first back-to-back winner in the World Championship era of FIM Flat Track as he stormed to victory in the second Final of the 2022 campaign. A welcome return to Morizès for the first French Round since 2019, it was well-supported by almost 2,000 spectators as part of the day’s festivities with the FIM Long Track World Championship later taking place under floodlights at the Piste du Parc Municipal.

Undoubtedly the class of the field, Boncinelli twice stormed through to the front in the Final, which was re-staged after a spill for reigning world number two Kevin Corradetti in the initial running. Corradetti, who finished third at the German Round back in July, had made it through to lead on the opening lap with a bold outside pass on Francesco Cecchini coming off Turn Two. Boncinelli, though, was not to be denied, cutting past Cecchini on the inside down the backstraight and then passing Corradetti into Lap Two. Corradetti, now defending against Cecchini, ran too fast into turn three on the fourth lap and fell spectacularly enough to force out the red flags. Corradetti’s disqualification means he slips from only five points in arrears to 21 points down, albeit with three Rounds remaining.

Francesco Cecchini again took the holeshot in the re-run, but this time he carried enough speed around the first two turns to pull clear down the backstraight, while Matteo Boncinelli found himself even further back in fourth. But it was a fine display of determined riding that saw him to victory, via three outside attacks. The first to slip behind him was Gerard Bailo, the Spaniard hemmed in on the inside behind fast-starting Daniele Moschini around turns three and four on the opening lap. Once clear of Bailo, Boncinelli then dispatched his fellow countryman into the next bend in straightforward fashion, before closing down leader Cecchini. The six-times World Cup winner defended until the pits bend on lap three, but Boncinelli was clearly significantly faster and simply breezed through.

Behind Boncinelli, Gerard Bailo put in another strong ride to again claim second and limit the damage. Top seed to the Final after topping the qualifying heats with three wins and a third, Bailo didn’t make a good start at either attempt from the gate three position he had selected, but after dropping to fourth place on Lap One he made two incisive inside passes to recover second, first passing Daniele Moschini coming off turn two on Lap Four, then picking off Francesco Cecchini with just over two laps remaining to repeat his Diedenbergen result with second.

Cecchini made the most progress of anybody in the Standings; having scored just a single point after crashing out during the heats in Diedenbergen, his third place sees him jump up to eighth overall. Daniele Moschini, whose Heat 9 win helped him onto the front row of the grid for the Final, moves third in the Standings after a fourth place finish in Morizès. Masatoshi Ohmori of Japan won the opening race of the day ahead of Cecchini and Moschini, but was beaten by them in the Final; nonetheless, a second consecutive fifth place is enough to leave him fourth overall ahead of the unfortunate Kevin Corradetti. Ervin Krajcovic, who finished sixth, and Jack Bell, who made his first Grand Final after winning the Last Chance Qualifier, also climbed in the rankings.
But the Championship lead after two Rounds remains in the hands of the unbeaten Matteo Boncinelli; having also taken the season opener in Diedenbergen before the summer break, the Italian doubles his lead over Gerard Bailo to six points before the series heads to Pardubice in three weeks’ time.

Matteo Boncinelli (1st): “Two wins in a row and I’m very happy about that. The team has been perfect and so has the bike. I’m very sorry for Kevin who crashed and I hope he gets well soon. But it was very difficult to have a re-start, because you needed to be strong for 20 laps. I have trained hard and today it worked out for me. I practised a different line to try and give myself a bit more speed, and it was certainly more fun that wide. It’s really enjoyable to ride abroad, because in Italy there aren’t so many different tracks, so it has been nice to travel around the world and see some different venues.

DETAILED RESULTS HERE

FIM/Alex Raby