Speedway Grand Prix: Anders Thomsen takes SGP win in Gorzow as Bartosz Zmarzlik extends championship lead

Updated 25/06/2022 at 21:22 GMT

Anders Thomsen powered through difficult conditions to claim victory in round 5 of the 2022 FIM Speedway Grand Prix. The Dane finished ahead of Martin Vaculik and Bartosz Zmarzlik who extended his championship lead. The 2022 Speedway Grand Prix is available live and ad-free on discovery+ with live race action also on Eurosport 2.

‘People said he shouldn’t be riding!’ – Thomsen powers to SGP win in Gorzow

Anders Thomsen powered through difficult conditions to claim victory in round 5 of the 2022 FIM Speedway Grand Prix.

The Dane came through a thrilling final to claim his first win of the season beating Martin Vaculik into second and Bartosz Zmarzlik in third.

The trio who all race as team-mates for Stal Gorzow in the Ekstraliga - made the most of their familiarity with their home track at the Edward Jancarz Stadium, thrilling the 15,000-strong partisan crowd.

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Rainfall ahead of the race appeared to impact the track, which required treatment throughout the evening on an unpredictable night of action.

For Thomsen, victory was all the more impressive having suffered a concussion in a race just 10 days earlier following a crash with fellow SGP star and countryman Mikkel Michelsen - an incident that required him to spend a night in hospital.

The 28-year-old won two of his heats and took a second place to qualify for the semi-finals in fifth place with nine points.

Thomsen took first place in his semi-final after roaring ahead of Zmarzlik and Dan Bewley - the Brit, who had performed brilliantly all night and topped qualifying, was ultimately unable to get the better of the championship leader who booked his final spot.

Vaculik finished behind Patryk Dudek in the other semi, giving the winner from Teterow a fortnight ago first pick of the gates in the final.

Dudek opted for gate one, Thomsen took two, Vaculik picked the outside gate leaving Zmarzlik with the difficult gate three.

This allowed Thomsen to take his chance against the SGP favourite and once he pulled away in the decider, there was no looking back.

Despite his failure to win the race, Zmarzlik extended his lead at the top of the championship to 18 points after a night to forget for Maciej Janowski.

Janowski, who sat in second place and 11 back on Zmarzlik ahead of the meeting, struggled to get going and with just one second place finish in the heats, ended up 15th overall with just two championship points.

The 30-year-old has slipped down to fourth in the rankings as a result, behind Leon Madsen and Vaculik respectively, while Zmarzlik's gap to the rest of the field opens up.

The next meeting is in Cardiff on August 13th.