McFarlane makes gains, Gundersen hurts.

Kawasaki's Andrew McFarlane produced his best ride of the season with a strong fifth place finish in the Bulgarian Motocross Grand Prix, following home championship leader Mickael Pichon as the Suzuki rider suffered his second defeat in two weeks by Stefan Everts.

McFarlane admitted that he had been better prepared for the Sevlievo event, and was happier with his bike than he had been at the previous round in Italy.

"My preparation was much better for this grand prix and, unlike Montevarchi last weekend, we have done some work on the suspension and the engine worked well," he explained, "I made a good tyre choice although, in some parts of the track, where they had watered it wouldn't matter what you were running, it was so slippery.

"From that start, I think I almost had the holeshot, but I touched someone in the first turn and lost a little ground. I fought hard on the opening lap to make up ground and pushed from the very beginning, but I had a big wobble on one of the downhills when Federici decided to change lines and cut right across me. I nearly lost my balance as he came across to the inside line, almost fell, but, after that, I just tried to put in consistent laps time to stay in contention with the top five."

The battle out front saw Everts close on Dane Brian Jorgensen after he had been leading for four laps. The Belgian passed for the lead almost as soon as he had reeled Jorgensen in and went on to claim another win. McFarlane moved to sixth by lap four and, after chasing Federici for a further five laps, moved into fifth position.

"I was right on Pichon when he crashed and moved to fourth," he recalled, "I had some good lines but others weren't so good. Pichon came by me in front of the signal area and managed to get the drop into the next right hand turn. He and Federici kept getting away from me in the middle of the race but, in the end, I managed to split them and take fifth place. Overall, I was happy with my performance."

Team-mate Kenneth Gundersen set a frantic pace in Saturday's qualifying session, but Smets stole pole position from Pichon while Gundersen took an eventual third position.

With a good pick of start gates, and carrying a lot of speed around the circuit Gundersen should have been set for a great result, but it was not to be.

"I felt so good on Saturday and Sunday morning, everything was going well until the race started but, from then on, it all went wrong," he sighed, "I made a good start but I locked handlebars with Pichon in the first turn and was left back in about 15th position. When I got going, I couldn't find any good lines and wasn't enjoying myself - when you are stuck riding with the mid-pack guys, you drop to their speed and I found I couldn't go forward."

Coming through from 16th at the end of lap one, Gundersen moved to tenth position following Marnicq Bervoets.

"I was right on the wheel of Bervoets when he spat up a stone which hit me right on the nose," he revealed, "I was lucky it didn't break through my goggles, but it really hurt."

Gundersen rode on with blurred vision, but eventually lost contact with his assailant.

"The front guys broke away and the race may as well have been over for me," he said, "With the rain that fell before the race, it became more like a one line track - I couldn't get by anyone as I wanted too."

Pichon holds onto his lead with a three point lead over Smets, while Kawasaki team-mates Gundersen and McFarlane are currently lying in sixth and seventh positions.