HansAndersen had the final say on a night of drama at Lonigo as he took his first Grand Prix win for over two years.

Andersen's victory, which moves him into contention for an overall top three place, was only achieved on the last half-lap of the meeting as an event which contained numerous twists and turns in the World title chase threw up one final surprise - and some relief for series leader Nicki Pedersen.

Having failed to reach the semi-finals for the first time this season and with his great rival Jason Crump in top form, Pedersen was facing the prospect of a huge dent to his overall lead.

Crump led the Final, which was running exactly according to the form of the evening, and the Australian was set to travel to Gelsenkirchen with his deficit to Crump cut from 28 points to just 12.

However, on the last lap Crump's machine began losing power and Andersen seized his opportunity to move around the outside going into the third bend. As Crump lost all momentum, an in-form Bjarne Pedersen made it through on the inside too - and the four lost points for Crump means Nicki's margin is a more comfortable sixteen points.

The two title contenders had endured a painful evening, both finding themselves involved in two major talking points.

Pedersen was first to hit the deck, brought down on the second lap of Heat 2 by Fredrik Lindgren as the Swede became trapped between Pedersen and Andreas Jonsson as the three riders chased the same line.

With machine damage, Pedersen was limited to one point in the re-run and was then excluded from his next ride when he hit the fence on turn three after colliding with Crump's machine as his rival moved through on the inside.

That left Pedersen up against it, but Crump didn't emerge unscathed with a knock to his leg in the incident - not that it hampered his progress en route to 13 points as Pedersen eventually made his way to six, not enough to move on in the meeting.

There was more action in the first semi-final when Crump and Tomasz Gollob contested the lead despite the pair being clear of Rune Holta and Leigh Adams.

Crump went down under Gollob's challenge, with the Polish rider being excluded - and Adams also took a second opportunity to reach the Final.
The second semi saw Andersen and Bjarne Pedersen come through at the expense of Greg Hancock and Jonsson - and that turned out to be the one-two outcome in the Final after Crump's late setback.

Andersen said: "It's been a long time but we've been pushing hard and I was really disappointed when I gave it away in Sweden - fair play to Leigh for riding a good race but he shouldn't have passed me.
"It's been a hard season, we changed to GMs halfway through and there have been other problems but the engines have been really good lately.

"My ambition from the beginning of the season was to get onto the rostrum and it seemed to have been slipping away. Today was a good one, it's still going to be mighty tough but I'll be there doing my best."
A distraught Crump said: "I think we had an ignition problem in the Final. Twelve points would have been do-able but 16 isn't really. It should have been a lot less."

Once again, an eight-point score was not automatically enough to qualify for the semi-finals, and Scott Nicholls had particular cause to rue a first-race tapes exclusion, especially as the rest of his meeting included one of the rides of the season in Heat 7 when he breached Lukas Dryml's fierce defences.

Nicholls goes into the last round of the series three points behind eighth-placed Rune Holta, although Bjarne Pedersen has moved into that particular battle too following his 17-point haul.

Nicholls' fellow Brit Chris Harris was an unfortunate withdrawal from the meeting after suffering knee ligament, rib and lower back damage in a heavy practice crash on Friday - although he did remain at the track to watch the event and hopes to return for the series finale in a fortnight.
 
2008 ITALIAN GRAND PRIX RESULT:
Hans Andersen (Den) 21, Bjarne Pedersen (Den) 17, Jason Crump (Aus) 18, Leigh Adams (Aus) 12, Rune Holta (Pol) 10, Greg Hancock (USA) 9, Tomasz Gollob (Pol) 9, Andreas Jonsson (Swe) 9, Scott Nicholls (GB) 8, Krzysztof Kasprzak (Pol) 8, Nicki Pedersen (Den) 6, Niels-Kristian Iversen (Den) 6, Fredrik Lindgren (Swe) 5, Lukas Dryml (Cze) 4, Mattia Carpanese (Ita) 2, Guglielmo Franchetti (Ita) 0, Alessandro Milanese (Ita, res) 0.
 
OVERALL STANDINGS after Round 10:
Nicki Pedersen 161, Jason Crump 145, Greg Hancock 129, Tomasz Gollob 127, Hans Andersen 123, Leigh Adams 110, Andreas Jonsson 88, Rune Holta 73, Scott Nicholls 70, Bjarne Pedersen 66, Fredrik Lindgren 64, Niels-Kristian Iversen 59, Chris Harris 54, Krzysztof Kasprzak 52, Lukas Dryml 39.