Australia’s Matt Phillips was the E3 class winner on day one of the FIM Enduro World Championship at Rovetta in Italy.

After trailing Mathias Bellino (Husqvarna) by just one hundredth of a second in Friday’s Super Test, KTM’s Phillips got down to business on Saturday morning.

Winning the first four special tests Phillips opened up an 18-second advantage. And then after losing 10 seconds in the second extreme test, he quickly corrected the situation and pulled clear to win the day by over 43 seconds.

“It was nearly an almost perfect day,” explained Phillips. “I won the first four tests this morning and that gave me a decent lead until I dropped it in the extreme test.

“I got a charge on again and was able to build it back up. I’m pretty happy with that.”

Faced with a highly motivated Phillips, Bellino wasn’t able to match the pace of his close competitor and had to settle for second. Back on the podium again, TM’s Aigar Leok enjoyed a strong ride for third.

Meanwhile clocking up his third win in as many races, Husqvarna’s Pela Renet claimed top honours in Enduro 2 on Saturday from Antoine Meo and Alex Salvini.

Enduro 1 was the most competitive class of Saturday with the top four riders separated by just 21 seconds. Chasing his third win in a row, TM’s Eero Remes faced a big fight with Christophe Nambotin and early pace-setter Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco).

Making almost no mistakes on the final lap, Remes claimed the win from Nambotin and Husqvarna’s Daniel McCanney, who delivered a strong ride on the final lap to edge out Santolino for third.

2015 Enduro World Championship
Round five – Rovetta, Italy

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