Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Manuel Lettenbichler has placed fifth overall at round five of the 2024 FIM SuperEnduro World Championship in Hungary. With improving race results of 5-4-3 in front of a 17,000-strong crowd at Budapest’s MVM Dome, Mani grew stronger as the evening progressed to maintain third overall in the championship standings with just two rounds now remaining.
Kicking off the evening’s racing in the Hungarian capital with the Prestige Superpole, Mani posted the third-fastest time to secure a valuable championship point. Making the most of his favorable start position for race one, the German initially started in second before holding third for the first half of the race. However, a series of small errors during the final few minutes proved costly for Lettenbichler, causing him to cross the line in fifth place.
Determined to bounce back after a difficult opening race, Mani benefited from a strong start in race two, despite starting on the back row due to the reversed grid. However, the tricky uphill rock section that proved to be a pinch-point of the track for many riders caught Mani out early on. Slipping to 10th place by the end of lap one, the German regrouped with an impressive comeback ride to place fourth on his KTM 300 EXC.
The third and final race of the evening saw Lettenbichler go from strength-to-strength. Slotting into third on lap one, Mani enjoyed the battle for second place for the majority of the race. Despite his best efforts, he ended up settling for a close third.
Just missing the overall podium by two points to finish fifth at round five, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider remains third in the championship standings as they head to the penultimate round in Bulgaria in three weeks’ time.
Manuel Lettenbichler: “I’m pretty happy with how tonight has gone! Speed-wise, my riding was good, but I just made a few mistakes with line choices, especially in the first race. I had good pace, but when someone crashed in front of me, it was tough to settle back into a good rhythm. In the second moto I fought back from pretty much last to fourth, which was good. I feel like we could see the speed was there in the last race and that the changes we made to the bike are helping. For my championship position, today has helped me strengthen third overall.”
The sixth and penultimate round of the 2024 FIM SuperEnduro World Championship will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria on February 24.
