Tuesday 25th September 2012, 19:13

Swedish racer Freddie Lindgren is targeting a spot on the World Championship rostrum in 2013 after securing automatic qualification for the first time in his career.

Fast Freddie’s 11-point haul at the FIM Dansk Metal Nordic SGP on Saturday kept him seventh in the standings on 111 points, meaning Andreas Jonsson in ninth cannot overhaul him.

Although ninth spot would be enough to seal a place in next year’s series following Jason Crump’s SGP retirement, Lindgren will be delighted to be guaranteed his first ever top-eight finish.

Having finished ninth in 2009 and 2011, the Wolves star has made serious progress this season. And he is keen to keep pushing on next term and mount an assault on the top three.

He said: “I’m more consistent now. I’m making semi-finals more often than I don’t and maybe next year I’ll have the luck of being in most of the finals.

“It depends how next season starts, but obviously winning a medal is the next step. I wanted 10 points from each round and I’m pretty much there at the moment. I want to be in finals more often next year.”

Lindgren is just nine points short of his pre-season target of 120 over 12 rounds. While he almost certainly cannot win a World Championship medal this year, Fast Freddie is keen to crown his best ever SGP season with a champagne finish in Torun.

He said: “There’s no real pressure on the last one. But Torun is a cool track and I’ll just go there to try and win. I want to be on the podium again before the season ends.”

Lindgren was gutted to miss out on the Vojens medal race after overhauling Crump for second place in semi-final one. He lifted on lap two, turn two and let the Aussie back through.

Having displayed great speed towards the end of his heats, Lindgren was gutted with such a costly slip.

He said: “I felt good in the last couple of heats and in the early part of the semi. I went past Crumpy and had really good speed.

“I made a bit of a mistake coming into turn one on the second lap. I hit a hole and my bike picked up. It was a good save because I didn’t crash.”

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