Toni Bou wins his third race of the season, accompanied on the podium by teammate Gabriel Marcelli
The return of the X-Trial World Championship to Madrid, after ten years away, could not have had a better ending for the Repsol Honda team. Toni Bou achieved his third consecutive win of 2022, maintaining his perfect record this season. New teammate, Gabriel Marcelli, rose to the second step of the podium, equaling his best result in the specialty, achieved last year in Barcelona.
The event began with Bou leading the first stage, tied on 11 points with Adam Raga but bettering him in terms of time. Marcelli was close behind, with two more points. Bou prevailed again in the second stage, in which a crash by Marcelli at Zone 4 relegated him to fourth position -although he remained third on the combined ranking and went through to the final. In the decisive round, Bou incurred just two points, with a splendid Marcelli on seven, claiming his second World Championship podium and his first with the Repsol Honda team.
With this result, Bou moves up to 65 points in the overall standings, 23 more than his nearest rival. Marcelli is sixth, with 16 points. On Sunday, April 10th, Barcelona will host the fourth round of the X-Trial World Championship at the Palau Sant Jordi.
TONI BOU
“I always head to Barcelona nervous, but obviously, with this result I will be much calmer. Achieving my third consecutive victory of the season in Madrid, with Gabriel Marcelli second and in ‘Repsol country,’ makes it a dream night. Everything went very well. On the first and second laps we struggled a little more, but in the final I felt very comfortable and I was able to make the difference on Zone 2.”
GABRIEL MARCELLI
“I’m very happy, because we repeated the result from last year in Barcelona. Today I managed to release all the pressure I had in France, and I think that was the big difference, since I entered the second round with a totally different vision of the race. This result is almost unbeatable. This podium is very positive in terms of us continuing the season on the right track. I felt very supported by the fans here in Madrid.”
