Former double world champion Sébastien Tortelli and reigning nine-times world champion Stefan Everts emerged tied on points - with a heat win apiece - after Sunday's season opening Grand Prix of Flanders.
Despite showers on race day morning, the sandy and slightly uninspiring Zolder track remained in fairly good condition and - although the MX1 racing was a little disappointing - the MX2 class threw up some interesting lead changes.
Tortelli, making his grand prix return after racing in the AMA championships from 1999-2005, silenced his doubters with a start-to-finish race one victory. The Frenchman faced initial pressure from Everts, but the Belgian legend suffered a small fall and was ultimately unable to get close enough to attack, then dropped right off the KTM rider's pace in the closing stages.
"After the mistake I came back quickly on the track and didn’t lose a position, but I couldn’t get back into a good rhythm," explained Everts.
However, race two was to see almost an exact reversal, with Everts leading from to start-to-finish - and therefore claiming the overall grand prix victory due to a better race two result - while Tortelli settled for a safe second after clashing with a lapped rider, and stalling his KTM, while trying to close down Everts.
"I was only three seconds behind Stefan when I crashed and lost a lot of time to re-start the bike, but I’m pretty happy with my results," declared Sebastian. "We proved today that our team has work hard to solve the problems we had in the pre-season, and it was great to battle again with Stefan, with so many fans cheering us."
However, Zolder was far less successful for two other championship contenders - whose 2006 title hopes now already look to be over: 2005 championship runner-up Josh Coppins was forced to withdraw from the event due to a dislocated shoulder, for which it appears he will need surgery, while former world champion Mickael Pichon was a shadow of his normal self due to illness.
