Honda's Ivan Lazzarini, who qualified 1st, challanged Chareyre and placed 2nd overall with moto scores of 2-3-5.
Christian Ravaglia took the final step on the podium with 6-4-3 moto finishes.
The story of the day belonged to Mauno Hermunen. During the off season he moved from Husqvarna to the SHR Honda race team. Then in the weeks before the first World Championship race the SHR team partnered with TM to put Hermunen on a factory TM machine. Round 1 did not begin well as Hermunen had mechanical problems on the line for moto 1 which required outside assistance to get his bike running again. This disqualified him from moto 1. Hermunen came back with a vengance in moto 2 and 3 winning both with convincing 6 and 13 second victory margins. The first moto DQ landed him 4th overall. Look for Hermunen to be running up front at the next round in Sicily, Italy May 27.
Here is the highlights video:
