Unbeaten on the opening day and clearly the racer carrying most pace, Martin Haarahiltunen’s perfect start to the 2026 FIM Ice Speedway World Championship was derailed in a dramatic Grand Final in Inzell in Germany, but the four-time and defending champion still leads the title chase following this season’s opening two Finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After dominating the programme with a full-house of Heat wins followed by victory in the Grand Final, the defending champion picked up where he left off with another unbeatable five-from-five scorecard in the Heats and was leading the Grand Final when Max Koivula runner-up clipped his back wheel.\u00a0
The contact brought both riders down and earned Koivula a disqualification, but with Haarahiltunen unable to make the restart it was his fellow Swede Niclas Svensson who came out on top of a two-rider Grand Final ahead of home hero Luca Bauer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the sixteen vital points he received for third mean the thirty-five-year-old reigning champion carries a two-point advantage into next month’s third and deciding Final at Heerenveen in the Netherlands.
Another packed crown in Bavaria’s Max Aicher Arena greeted racers and Finland’s Koivula, last season’s bronze medallist, maintained his momentum from Saturday with victory in a first Heat that was restarted twice \u2013 once after Koivula and his compatriot Heikki Huusko crashed in the first turn and again when Germany’s Johann Weber fell following the restart.
Svensson then opened his account with victory ahead of Sweden’s Ove Ledstr\u00f6m before Haarahiltunen won from the fast-starting Franz Zorn and Bauer led home his Czech rival Luk\u00e1\u0161 Hutla to complete the opening block of racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making it two wins from two starts, Svensson defeated Germany’s Max Niedermaier and Austrian veteran Zorn then led home Ledstr\u00f6m with Koivula maintaining his unbeaten record ahead of the Czech Republic’s Andrej Divi\u0161 and Haarahiltunen matching him at the expense of Bauer.\u00a0
Bauer bounced back in his third Heat to win from Ledstr\u00f6m and remain firmly in contention and Haarahiltunen then defeated Svensson while Koivula led home Dutch racer Sebastian Reitsma as the pair moved into a clear lead.
A podium finisher yesterday and regarded as one of the pre-season title contenders, Huusko missed the restarted opening Heat and was forced to sit out his second while he received medical attention, but returned to action with a brave victory in his third Heat after overhauling Zorn to keep his slim championship hopes alive.
After Haarahiltunen took his fourth win of the day, this time at the expense of Niedermaier, Hutla claimed his first victory before Svensson defeated Koivula and Bauer to move into joint second and Sweden’s Filip J\u00e4ger won his fourth Heat from Ledstr\u00f6m after Huusko had crashed out of the lead to force a restart.
With favoured lines changing on a race-by-race basis as the track became increasingly technical and only the top two progressing directly to the Grand Final with the next four contesting the Last Chance Heat, the final block of racing got under way with Svensson immediately booking his transfer to the main race of the day with his fourth victory of the afternoon.
Bauer then won from J\u00e4ger and completed his clean sweep of the Heats ahead of Koivula before a dramatic concluding Heat that saw Zorn win from Niedermaier, with the result lifting both racers into the top six at the expense of Hutla and Ledstr\u00f6m.
Koivula and Bauer ran one-two in the Last Chance Heat to book their places in the Grand Final that was holeshot from the favoured inside gate by Haarahiltunen who looked certain to be heading to another impressive full-house of victories. However, before he could pull clear Koivula drifted wide from an inside line, clipped his rear wheel and both riders went down.
Adjudged to have been at fault, Koivula was disqualified from the restart and after Haarahiltunen was unable to continue it was Svensson who topped the podium for the third time in his career with Bauer matching his own personal career-best finish in second.
The 2026 FIM Ice Speedway World Championship will go down to the wire at the third and deciding Final of the season at Heerenveen in the Netherlands on 11 April when Haarahiltunen will start with a two-point lead over Svensson who in turn leads Koivula by a further two points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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