3 rounds, 3 wins! Ducati lead the FIM Flat Track World Championship in P1 & P2

VRX Dirt Store Ducati Race Team completed a hat-trick of FIM Flat Track World Championship wins at a sweltering Teterow on Saturday – and this time it was Tim Neave taking his long-awaited maiden victory in the series.

The more experienced Neave had played second fiddle to newcomer Ashton Boughen in the first two rounds of 2026, but in Germany nobody was going to deny him his night of glory after five previous podium appearances.

Neave was the class of the field throughout the meeting, winning three of his four qualifying races and finishing second behind Ondrej Svedik in the other, before emerging on top in the decider when he went from third to first.

And whilst Boughen’s remarkable winning run came to an end, it was still a positive night for the youngster as he raced to fourth place overall and added the point for fastest lap in the Final, meaning he left Teterow having extended his Championship lead to nine points.

Conditions were just as tricky as expected given the searing heat, with the decision taken to reduce the length of the qualifying races to six laps.

Whilst Neave dominated proceedings and Boughen recovered nicely from being relegated to fourth place in his opener – he then won his next two rides – there were difficulties for big names elsewhere.

Defending Champion Ervin Krajcovic retired from his first race and finished outside the top ten after Heat 12, meaning he had to go through the Last Chance to even make it to the Final.

Daniele Tonelli was eliminated from the meeting at the Last Chance stage, whilst Jack Bell – who had gone into the meeting level with Neave in the standings – also had to take that route into the Final, but he was unable to make an impression in the decider.

Neave selected the inside starting position for the Final with Boughen going from grid three on the front row, with Sammy Halbert in between the two Ducati riders. But it was the returning Mathias Lorenzato, from grid five, who made the best start with Neave finding himself in third place behind Gerard Bailo as Boughen got caught in traffic and dropped outside the top six. Neave quickly moved inside Bailo for second but his first attempt to go round Lorenzato ended in contact on the back straight, which briefly put Bailo back into second place as the top four broke away with Halbert also in contention.

As Boughen was working his way through to fifth, Neave went back inside Bailo on lap four and then applied the pressure on Lorenzato, finally hitting the front on the seventh out of twelve laps and he dominated the race thereafter.

Boughen received a little assistance from a clash between Halbert and Bailo bringing him closer to the battle, and the penultimate lap saw Boughen take Bailo for fourth place – a move which provided an effective four-point swing in the overall title race, and also helped Neave move level overall with the Spaniard.

Lorenzato was a worthy second with Halbert third to underline his own strength after missing the opening round. But there was no question it was Neave’s night after a meeting which had challenged the very best in the sport to their limits.

Tim Neave
“It’s amazing. It’s been a while coming, I’ve been working at this for two or three years now, and obviously I’ve got a young new team-mate in who I’d never heard of, and he goes and wins the first two rounds – so I knew I needed to pull my finger out! It’s been good all day. I won three of my four heat races and got my head down in the Final, I didn’t make the best of starts but I knew I had the pace.

I just had to work out where to put my pass on and sure enough we got it done and pulled away a little bit, so a perfect win.

You just have to use your lines. I knew the dirt had been building up on the outside of the track all day, and I thought they might pull it down for the Final, but they kept it high so I just knew I needed to get a good start, get into the dirt high, avoid the bumps in the middle of the track and just ride hard every lap, and that’s what I did!

I just want to say a big thanks to Rob and Vicky and all the team at VRX Dirt Store Ducati. It’s a hell of an opportunity and I’m pleased to repay them with a win.”

Rob Painter, VRX Management Ltd MD
“We knew this was going to be a challenging round with the high temperatures forecast, so track preparations were always going to be difficult resulting in patchy conditions, and we also expected rider fitness to be a big factor. 

We asked the riders to focus on their hydration in the lead up to the event and on race day we introduced some products and procedures to make sure they were both at their best, and it was really pleasing to see how well they both came through it. 

I’ve mentioned before how it was a target of ours to see Tim get his first World Championship round win, so I couldn’t be happier for him. Tim put on a display, showing everyone the best way to get around a tough track and he really was the standout rider. 

Ashton found himself in traffic in the first turn of the Final but showed composure to work his way through to finish just behind the podium places, picking up the extra World Championship points for the fastest lap at the same time. 

We have once again shown the versatility and high level of performance from the Ducati Desmo 450 MX by continuing our 100% winning start to the season across three very different tracks and it is a proud moment to see Ducati leading the Manufacturers Championship.

Ashton and Tim are now P1 and P2 in the World Championship and I’m sure they’ll be keen to keep hold of the top two spots after next week’s Round 4 in Croatia.”

Photo credit: Jesper Veldhuizen