Matteo Grattarola

SECOND TITLE FOR GRATTAROLA 

A top-ten ranked TrialGP competitor from 2010 until 2017, thirty-two-year-old Matteo Grattarola dropped down to the Trial2 category in 2018 and took the title that year on a four-stroke Honda after a hard-fought season that saw him only win on a tie-break at the final round. 

He slipped to second in 2019, however a switch to a two-stroke Beta appeared to revitalise him this season and he returned to the top with a string of dominant performances that put the title out of reach of his rivals with one day of competition still to go. 

At the opening round in France he traded wins and runner-up positions with Alexandre Ferrer (TRRS) and then added another win and a second-placed finish at the Spanish TrialGP. With his rivals starting to crack under the pressure, Grattarola set himself up for his second Trial2 title with a double win at the penultimate round in Andorra. 

Heading into his home event – the Italian TrialGP – at Lazzate, located twenty miles north of Milan in the country’s industrial heartland, Grattarola had one hand on the trophy and a comprehensive twenty-seven-mark victory from Aniol Gelabert (TRRS) on the opening day was good enough for him to regain the championship. 

With the title in the bag, Grattarola could relax on day two in Italy and even though he ended the final day of competition in third – his worst finish of the season – he still ran out champion by the huge margin of fifty-two points ahead of France’s Ferrer. 

GRATTAROLA THE GREAT

Matteo Grattarola (Honda) clinched a hard-fought 2018 FIM Trial2 World Championship by the narrowest of margins, after tying for points with Britain’s Toby Martyn (Montesa) at the end of the eighth and final round of the campaign in Italy. 

Trial2 was electric all season with Grattarola having the early upper hand thanks to three wins from the first four days of competition in Spain, Japan and Andorra. Martyn then responded with a three-event winning streak in France, Belgium and a memorable home round at Silsden in the UK that moved the eighteen-year-old to the top of the standings and took the title chase right down to the wire. 

The spectacular venue of the Metzler Offroad Park at Pietramurata Di Dro in the foothills of the Alps provided a breath-taking backdrop for the championship decider and thirty-year-old Grattarola took full advantage of competing on home turf, turning in his best performance of the season when it really mattered to drop just a single mark on each lap. His final total of two gave him a sixteen-mark victory over Spain’s Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa), with Martyn a further three behind in third.

The result locked Grattarola and Martyn together at the top of the points table with the Italian, who dropped down from the TrialGP class this season, sensationally taking the title by virtue of more second-placed finishes. Last year’s runner-up Marcelli’s sixth podium of the year secured third overall.