Speedway Grand Prix

SLOW START COSTLY

Swedish skipper Magnus Zetterstrom admits his side’s nightmare start to Event Two at King’s Lynn killed their chances of storming straight into the Speedway World Cup Final.

The men in blue and yellow will meet Denmark, Russia and Australia in the Race-Off at Vojens on Thursday night after trailing Team Great Britain and the Aussies in third place at the Norfolk Arena.

Zorro’s men bagged just five points from their opening eight races and suffered some horrific misfortune.

Freddie Lindgren was harshly excluded from a re-run heat one after colliding with Britain’s Scott Nicholls on the first turn. This pill was even bitter to swallow given that the Wolves man was leading the first staging of the race.

Their woes then worsened when SGP star Zetterstrom threw a chain while leading heat four and went from first to last on the final turn.

The Swedes produced a brave comeback to finish the night on 40 points – just 11 short of Team GB’s total. But Zetterstrom admits his team could have done without their woeful opening heats.

Zorro, who scored a disappointing five points, said: “We didn’t get the best start to the night. I snapped a chain in my first one when I was leading on the last corner. Freddie lost an easy three points when the Finnish guy (Timo Lahti) came off in the first race.

“It would have probably been different for me if I’d had that first heat win. After that race, I had to undo the clutch, change different parts of the bike and I had such a small time to get everything ready.

“It’s mental in this sport and it’s tough to come back when you have to make a change to a bike you were winning on. When you get it wrong from the beginning, it’s very tough to get it back.”

Zetterstrom admits his team were grateful for the efforts of Lindgren and Jonas Davidsson, who weighed in with 14 points apiece to earn the Swedes a second chance to reach the Final via the Race-Off.

He said: “I’m glad to see Jonas and Freddie doing so well for us. It was a tough evening. We know how good Jonas is and he should have been in the team from the beginning.

“After all that, we need to be happy we qualified for the Race-Off and we actually came back very well at the end. It’s not easy to be happy about getting third place. But at least we get a second chance in Vojens to put it right.”

There is a chance Swedish champion Andreas Jonsson could recover from a shoulder injury to take his place in the side on Thursday. With Valsarna rider Daniel Nermark bagging just a point, manager Peter Jansson is almost certain to shuffle his pack.

Zetterstrom said: “Hopefully we can strengthen the team up a bit for Vojens. I think we are one of the few teams who have riders we can bring in.”

Of Jonsson’s chances of racing, Zorro added: “It’s too early to see. We need to have a word with him. The doctor has said one week, so we can’t take anything for granted now.

“We need to have a word with Andreas first and we won’t put any pressure on him. We’ve still got riders we can bring in, so I think we’ll come out strong from this.”

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