TROY Batchelor claimed a heat win but was unable to impact on the latter stages of the Finnish Grand Prix in Tampere last night.

The Swindon Robins ace bowed out of the meeting with seven points after failing to score in the final of his five programmed rides.

Earlier, the Aussie ace had battled with Polish ace Krzysztof Kasprzak before having to settle for second spot in his opening heat, but he then won his second outing by a distance before failing to score in the third.

Batchelor ran close to world champion Greg Hancock in his fourth outing before again finishing second, but failed to progress after a no-score in this final run.

Triple world champion Nicki Pedersen secured his first Grand Prix win since July 2012 at the meeting.

Pedersen saw off Britain's Tai Woffinden, Sweden's Andreas Jonsson third and Poland's Jaroslaw Hampel to claim victory.

The Czech Grand Prix in Prague is this coming Saturday, with Woffinden the championship leader on 22 points.

FINNISH SGP SCORES: 1 Nicki Pedersen 16, 2 Tai Woffinden 17, 3 Andreas Jonsson 12, 4 Jaroslaw Hampel 11, 5 Jason Doyle 11, 6 Krzysztof Kasprzak 10, 7 Michael Jepsen Jensen 10, 8 Greg Hancock 9, 9 Matej Zagar 7, 10 Troy Batchelor 7, 11 Chris Holder 7, 12 Chris Harris 6, 13 Niels-Kristian Iversen 6, 14 Tomas H Jonasson 4, 15 Timo Lahti 3, 16 Maciej Janowski 2, 17 Nike Lunna 0, 18 Jiri Nieminen 0.

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Tai Woffinden 22, 2 Nicki Pedersen 19, 3 Jaroslaw Hampel 18, 4 Andreas Jonsson 16, 5 Matej Zagar 15, 6 Jason Doyle 15, 7 Michael Jepsen Jensen 15, 8 Greg Hancock 14, 9 Krzysztof Kasprzak 13, 10 Niels-Kristian Iversen 13, 11 Chris Harris 13, 12 Tomas H Jonasson 8, 13 Chris Holder 7, 14 Troy Batchelor 7, 15 Maciej Janowski 5, 16 Tomasz Gollob 4, 17 Bartosz Zmarzlik 3, 18 Timo Lahti 3.