COVATTI CLOSE TO QUALIFYING FOR CHALLENGE

Two wins and two second places with a third place to complete his 11 point tally was not quite enough for Nico Covatti to book a GP challenge place from Saturday's GP qualifying round in Glasgow.

Despite winning his final ride, heat 19, beating Pontus Aspgren in the process, Covatti knew that his chances of stealing a top four place were unlikely as the final programmed heat of the meeting brought two riders - Robert Lambert and Chris Holder - together and they both had 10 points each to their name.

Already qualified at that stage were the unbeaten Craig Cook (also part of the heat 20 finale), Dane Niels-Kristian Iversen and Aspgren of Sweden. Both Holder and Lambert had already beaten Covatti during the course of the meeting and, like Covatti, had recorded two wins and two second places, so countback would fall in their favour.

In the final outcome, Cook completed the perfect score and Lambert ran a second place, thus grabbing that fourth qualifying spot and Holder finished third, thus matching Covatti's score.

Two other qualifying rounds were also staged on Saturday, the fourth and final round scheduled for Abensberg on Monday. The top four from each round progress to the GP Challenge in Gorican, Croatia in August and 2018 Poole here Chris Harris claimed one of those spots which gives GB a three-rider representation in what will be a cut-throat meeting with the top three finishers all securing their 2020 GP places.

GLASGOW SCORES: 1. Craig Cook 15, 2. Niels Kristian Iversen 13+3, 3. Pontus Aspgren 13+2 , 4. Robert Lambert 12, 5. Chris Holder 11, 6. Nicolas Covatti 11, 7. Broc Nicol 9, 8. Tero Aarnio 7, 9. Bartosz Smektala 6, 10. Jacob Thorssell 6, 11. Ondrej Smetana 5, 12. Glenn Moi 3, 13. Kyle Bickley 3, 14. Hans Andersen 2, 15. Dimitri Berge 2, 16. Sebastian Niedzwiedz 1, 17. Rohan Tungate 1, 18. Leon Flint 0.

ZARNOVICA SCORES: 1. Anders Thomsen 14, 2. Martin Vaculik 13, 3. Peter Ljung 12+3, 4. Matej Zagar 12+2, 5. Andzejs Lebedevs 10, 6. Jaroslaw Hampel 9, 7. Krzysztof Buczkowski 8, 8. Andrei Kudriashov 7, 9. Eduard Krcmar 5, 10. Gleb Chugunov 5, 11. Daniel Bewley 5, 12. Olegs Mihailovs 5, 13. Andriy Karpov 5, 14. Josef Franc 5, 15. Norbert Magosi 3, 16. Joel Kling 2, 17. Jakub Valkovic 0, 18. Jan Mihalik DNR.

LAMOTHE LANDERRON SCORES: 1. David Bellego 14, 2. Chris Harris 13, 3. Mikkel Michelsen 12+3, 4. Max Fricke 12+2, 5. Szymon Wozniak 11, 6. Wiktor Kulakov 10, 7. Oliver Berntzon 9, 8. Kai Huckenbeck 7, 9. Max Dilger 7, 10. Luke Becker 6, 11. Bradley Wilson-Dean 5, 12. Mathieu Tresarrieu 5, 13. Zdenek Holub 5, 14. Stephane Tresarrieu 2, 15. Jesse Mustonen 2, 16. Nicolas Vicentin 0, 17. Gaetan Stella 0.