SWINDON Robins skipper Jason Doyle further extended his lead at the top of the World Championship standings last night with a third-place finish in Germany.

Heading to the Bergring Arena, the Australian had a narrow three-point advantage over Maciej Janowski, with fellow Polish rider Patryk Dudek a further point behind.

On a night littered with re-runs for unsatisfactory starts, Doyle got off to the perfect start as he took the win in heat four, pipping King’s Lynn Stars’ Kai Huckenbeck to the chequered flag.

In heat six, former Robin Peter Kildemand and Bartosz Zmarzlik tangled into bend one, with the Pole excluded from the re-run for causing the crash.

However, the red lights came on again with Tai Woffinden adjudged to have rolled at the start, but that didn’t distract Doyle from picking up his second race win of the evening.

Doyle was up against his title contender Janowski in heat 11 and was given a big boost in his race to a maiden world crown as the Pole was excluded for jumping the start for a second time, with Martin Vaculik also warned.

However, Emil Sayfutdinov inflicted a first defeat on Doyle, who finished second behind the Russian rider, leaving him a point behind the leader after 12 heats Chris Holder, and level with Dudek on eight points.

It was Doyle who was warned in heat 13 for moving at the start, but the Aussie put that to the back of his mind and he gated superbly to pick up his third win of the night, with Dudek finishing back in fourth place.

Doyle then ensured he finished top of the pack heading into the semi-finals as he won heat 20, with Holder only able to come third, leaving the Swindon captain on 14 points.

Vaculik rode a superb first bend to take the lead in semi-final one but Doyle was able to stave off the advances of Sayfutdinov and Kildemand to join the Russian in the final.

However, the Robins man had to settle for a third-placed finish as Matej Zagar, who only sneaked into the semis in eighth place on nine points, took the title ahead of Sayfutdinov.

Doyle will take comfort from the fact that his 17-point haul put him 10 points clear at the summit, with Dudek, who scored 11 points, now in second and Janowski in third after a disappointing seven points.

“It’s nice to bag a few points. But like I keep saying, you can have one bad round and be out of it, so I’m just keeping level-headed and scoring the points,” said Doyle.

“Well done to Matej and Martin for a great night.

“I’d like to personally thank Phil Morris (FIM race director) for all the hard work he has done tonight behind the scenes.

“The track was under water for the last two days and he and his team worked very hard and I’d like to thank him for what a great job he put on.”