Speedway Grand Prix 2022 - Bartosz Zmarzlik claims dominant victory in first GP of the season in Croatia

Bartosz Zmarzlik has claimed the first FIM Speedway Grand Prix win of the 2022 season at the FIM Croatian Speedway GP, held in Gorican. The 16 riders battled out for the race win, but there could only be one. Zmarzlik was already the favourite coming into the race weekend after his spectacular performance in last season, which saw the Polish rider come second overall and narrowly missing out on a thrid succsive world title.

Ad/> In the afternoon's qualifying session, Zmarzlik set a blistering lap of 14.339 which no other man could get close to. /> Speedway GP'So much could have gone horribly wrong' — Lambert avoids Lindgren crash to take Gorican SGP Heat 62 HOURS AGO Over the 20 heats of the main race, Maciej Janowski looked the man to beat on the night as he set himself top of the standings with 13 points. However, Zmarzlik wasn’t lurking too far behind, sitting in second place on 12.

Heading through to the semi-finals, Zmarzlik found himself battling for a place in the final with Mikkel Michelsen, wildcard Matej Zagar and Jason Doyle. He flew off to victory and was now looking the strongest. The final heat consisted of Zmarzlik, Janowski, Michelsen and Anders Thomsen.

The heat got off to a rough start when contact between Michelsen and Thomsen on the first corner sent Michelsen off his bike. Michelsen was able to continue, and all four riders took to the track for four final laps. Zmarzlik bolted out of his gate once the tape was down and never looked back, cruising to victory.

Janowski had to settle for second with Michelsen and Thomsen coming in third and fourth respectively. Elsewhere, Robert Lambert got off to a strong start, winning his first two heats. However, the next three heats did not go to plan and he just