Andersen grabs third in British GP

The Poole Castle Cover pin up boy notched 11 points in the qualifiers to reach the semi-finals second only behind maximum man Jason Crump, who got 15.

Andersen enjoyed two large slices of luck in his semi-final, as Chris Harris and then Nicki Pedersen were both excluded following collisions with the Dane.

The Pirate, booed by the Cardiff crowd just before he climbed onto the bottom step of the podium, finished second behind Greg Hancock in a two-man second re-run of race 22.

Then he passed the American on the final lap to grab third behind Crump, who scorched to seven straight heat wins and a stunning maximum 24 points to win the GP and second-placed Fredrik Lindgren.

Crump now has a mammoth 31-point lead over Emil Sayfutdinov in the overall championship, while Andersen climbed from 13th to eighth with his 15-point haul.

Earlier, Andersen and Hancock both got out from the tapes level in front in heat two, but the Pirate scorched outside the American on the first and second turn.

Then the Dane expertly hugged the white line to peg Hancock behind him and pick up only his second GP race win of the season.

It was only the second time he had taken the chequered flag in 21 heats this term, and his first in seven races.

Andersen then flew out of the traps to hit the front early in his next outing.

The Pirate held off Leigh Adams’ strong second bend outside surge and then went on to win at a canter, punching the air in delight as he took the chequered flag to forge into overall joint lead with Sebastian Ulamek and Crump on six points after two ‘rounds’ of rides.

Andersen, clearly with a ‘fast’ machine, made light of the unfavourable gate one, which had provided only two heat winners in 10 races up until then, to reel off his third straight victory in heat 11.

He jumped out in front, contained Kenneth Bjerre’s attempted inside charge, and then comfortably held off his fellow Dane and third-placed Ulamek to go into the interval level on a maximum nine points with Crump.

The Dane was on fire, having tripled his GP race win account in less than 180 seconds in Cardiff.

Andersen missed the gate in heat 14, but swept majestically outside reigning world champion Nicki Pedersen, whose title is surely slipping away, on the second bend, third time round.

The Pirate, attempting a big sweep outside second-placed Chris Harris on the final turn, found himself at the back midway through the third-fourth corner but dived up inside Pedersen to claim back a vital third place that took his tally to 10.

Andersen, who won the last of his four GPs in Lonigo, Italy, in September, could still scent the prize of becoming the first Poole rider to win a GP round since Bjarne Pedersen triumphed at Wroclaw, Poland, in 2004 even though he went into the fifth block of heats two points behind Crump.

They clashed in race 17 and Andersen had just been passed for the lead by Emil Sayfutdinov coming out of the second turn as Andreas Jonsson sent Crump sprawling behind them after inadvertently ploughing into the Aussie from behind.

Crump picked himself up off the shale to win the re-run in comfortable style from the gate, with the Russian passing outside Andersen for second on the third lap.

The Aussie secured a 15-point maximum in the qualifiers, but it meant Andersen had finished with 11 and moved into his first semi-final of the season as he aimed to emulate Tony Rickardsson (six), Mark Loram (one), Leigh Adams (one) and Pedersen as the only Pirates GP winners.

After choosing to go out of gate three, Andersen lifted slightly after the tapes went up but was still battling for second on the first corner as he was forced wide by Greg Hancock.

Then, as Chris Harris dived inside the Dane, his bike inadvertently nudged Andersen, who fell, with referee Frank Ziegler ruling the Brit had been at fault for causing the spill.

All four back might have been a fairer decision, but Harris was out and Andersen got a fortuitous reprieve.

There was more controversy in the re-run with Andersen and Pedersen colliding going into the first turn, with the reigning world champion going down.

Andersen got the verdict again, much to Pedersen’s disgust as he paid the penalty for having a much stronger referee in control than last year’s British GP debacle when Nicki was twice given the benefit of the doubt after falling in similar circumstances on the first and second turn.

Twelve months ago, Poole captain Bjarne Pedersen and Leigh Adams were the ‘victims’ of hapless Polish referee Marek Wojaczek who controversially ruled Nicki could stay in races after he had gone into the back of those two, with Bjarne and Adams excluded for unfair riding.

This time, the German official decided Nicki had gone down on his own, leaving Hancock to beat Andersen in a two-man second re-run as they both safely completed the race to get into the final.

Forced to go off gate two after only having third choice of starting position in the final, Andersen totally missed the start.

But he hunted down Hancock for three laps and then charged outside the American on the second bend of the final circuit to grab third place behind convincing winner Crump and Fredrik Lindgren.

Earlier, in the most explosive incident of the night, Britain’s Scott Nicholls and Sayfutdinov had to pulled away from each other after they threw punches at each other on the track by the pits gate following a fiery heat five clash.

The Russian had gone in hard on Nicholls on the first lap, only for the Brit to repay the compliment on the fourth bend of the last lap as they jostled for third place.

Sayfutdinov, in a desperate last-gasp sweep, tried to go outside Nicholls, but the Brit forced the teenager out wider than he wanted to go to follow Sebastian Ulamek and Chris Harris home.

Nicholls and Sayfutdinov exchanged words as they drove alongside each other on their way back to the pits, becoming so deeply engrossed in their conversation that they failed to see where they were going and both crashed into the open safety fence.

They both tumbled off their bikes, and then became embroiled in an angry skirmish, with Nicholls succeeding in landing several punches on the Russians’ helmeted head, and Sayfutdinov retaliating in similar fashion.

Much to the annoyance of a bumper 35,000-plus crowd inside the Millennium Stadium, who were enjoying the unexpected ugly ‘boxing match’ being shown live on the indoor arena screens, Sky pulled the plug on their close-up live coverage inside the stadium.

The brawl continued inside the pits area, where the two riders had to be pulled away from each again.

Sayfutdinov was then booed by a big partisan crowd thereafter, just like Nicki Pedersen had been last year after knocking Adams and Poole’s Bjarne Pedersen off from behind in separate incidents in the 2008 British GP.

The ‘fight’ also evoked memories of Nicholls’ two ugly on-track fisticuffs with opponents Jeremy Doncaster and Brett Woodifield while he was a Pirate during his spell at Poole in 1999 and 2000.

No-nuisance Nicholls, then still a teenager learning his trade, came to blows with both Ipswich riders in separate meetings after first bend collisions at Wimborne Road.

Sayfutdinov and Nicholls were called into an FIM Jury disciplinary hearing immediately after the meeting had finished to face the music for their unsavoury antics.

Heat details British Grand Prix, Cardiff Qualifiers: Jason Crump (3-3-3-3-3) 15, Hans Andersen (3-3-3-1-1) 11, Greg Hancock (2-2-2-2-3) 11, Fredrik Lindgren (1-3-3-2-1) 10, Chris Harris (2-2-0-2-3) 9, Sebastian Ulamek (3-3-1-1-0) 8, Tomasz Gollob (0-1-2-3-2) 8, Nicki Pedersen (2-2-2-0-2) 8, Rune Holta (fell exc-1-3-fell exc-3) 7, Kenneth Bjerre (3-0-2-0-2) 7, Emil Sayfutdinov (1-0-1-3-2) 7, Scott Nicholls (0-1-1-3-1) 6, Andreas Jonsson (2-ret-1-2-exc unfair riding) 5, Edward Kennett (1-2-0-1-0) 4, Leigh Adams (1-0-0-1-1) 3, Grzegorz Walasek (0-1-0-0-0) 1. Reserves: Tai Woffinden dnr, Simon Stead dnr.

Referee: Referee: Frank Ziegler (Germany).

Ht 1: (re-run) Bjerre, Pedersen, Sayfutdinov, Holta (fell excluded), 55.0.

Ht 2: Andersen, Hancock, Lindgren, Nicholls, 56.5.

Ht 3: Ulamek, Jonsson, Kennett, Gollob, 56.0.

Ht 4: Crump, Harris, Adams, Walasek, 55.4.

Ht 5: Ulamek, Harris, Nicholls, Sayfutdinov, 55.7.

Ht 6: Lindgren, Pedersen, Walasek, Jonsson (retired), 55.8.

Ht 7: Crump, Hancock, Gollob, Bjerre, 55.0.

Ht 8: Andersen, Kennett, Holta, Adams, 55.7.

Ht 9: Lindgren, Gollob, Sayfutdinov, Adams, 55.7.

Ht 10: Crump, Pedersen, Nicholls, Kennett, 55.4.

Ht 11: Andersen, Bjerre, Ulamek, Walasek, 56.1.

Ht 12: Holta, Hancock, Jonsson, Harris, 56.1.

Ht 13: Sayfutdinov, Hancock, Kennett, Walasek, 57.0.

Ht 14: Gollob, Harris, Andersen, Pedersen, 57.1.

Ht 15: Nicholls, Jonsson, Adams, Bjerre, 57.0.

Ht 16: (re-run) Crump, Lindgren, Ulamek, Holta (fell excluded), 56.0.

Ht 17: (re-run) Crump, Sajfutdinov, Andersen, Jonsson (excluded unfair riding), 56.2.

Ht 18: Hancock, Pedersen, Adams, Ulamek, 56.6.

Ht 19: Harris, Bjerre, Lindgren, Kennett, 57.1.

Ht 20: Holta, Gollob, Nicholls, Walasek, 56.4.

Semi-finals Ht 21: Crump, Lindgren, Gollob, Ulamek, 56.6.

Ht 22 (2nd re-run) Hancock, Andersen, Pedersen (fell excluded), Harris (excluded unfair riding), 56.8.

Final Ht 23: Crump, Lindgren, Andersen, Hancock.

GP overall standings: 1 Crump 98, 2 Sayfutdinov 67, 3 Hancock 59, 4 Gollob 53, 5 Pedersen 52, 6 Jonsson 51, 7 Lindgren 49, 8 Bjerre 38, 9 Andersen 38, 10 Ulamek 35, 11 Holta 34, 12 Adams 31, 13 Harris 30, 14 Walasek 25, 15 Nicholls 17.

Wild cards: A Lindback 17, N-K Iversen 11, J Hampel 9, Kennett 4, M Kus 1.