BJARNE Pedersen struggled to make an impression on the Slovenian Grand Prix scorechart despite featuring in the race of the meeting at Krsko tonight.

The Pirates star, making his 50th GP appearance, saw at least four points slip away as he finished last with only four points.

But Poole Castle Cover's captain had the consolation of being involved in a thrilling duel with his Danish compatriot Hans Andersen in front of a 8,000 crowd inside the Stadion Matije Gubca in the first round of this year's World Championship.

After failing to gain any points from his opening two rides, Pedersen switched bikes and suddenly hit top gear when he led Andersen going into the last lap of heat 10.

Pedersen appeared to hold off Andersen's third bend charge by sticking tight to the inside line.

But Andersen, a former Poole rider, forced his way past on the inside on the fourth turn and pipped Pedersen to first place by half a wheel's length in the run-in.

Earlier in the race, Pedersen had blasted from third to first by expertly diving underneath Fredrik Lindgren and Andersen on the finish straight at the end of the opening circuit.

That was after Pedersen had got away from the tapes in front, but drifted a little too wide to allow Lindgren inside him before Andersen scorched past on the outside.

Unfortunately, Pedersen's heat 10 antics were about as good as it got for him as the heavens then opened and saturated the Krsko track.

With conditions favouring the inside gates, Pedersen - who, amazingly, still had an outside chance of reaching the semi-finals at that stage - trailed in last in heat 15.

When the rain relented, the Dane briefly led race 20 off gate one before Niels-Kristian Iversen drove hard inside him on the second turn to win.

Bjarne, however, rode an impressive line to peg defending world champion Nicki Pedersen into third place.

The Poole man had been made made to pay for a lack of engine power in his opening ride when he dropped another three points that should have been his.

Bjarne, sharp out of the gate, alarmingly slipped from first to last, being overtaken in three separate manoeuvres by Lukas Dryml, Chris Harris and Andreas Jonsson in heat two.

Then, in race five, he was totally out-trapped out of a dreadful gate four that failed to work for anyone throughout the whole meeting and finished last.

It was a disappointing first round result for Bjarne, who goes into the next meeting, the European Grand Prix at Leszno, Poland, on May 10, four points adrift of an automatic top-eight automatic re-qualification place.

The 37-year-old Pole, Tomasz Gollob, is the early GP leader after defeating Nicki Pedersen in the final, with Andersen third and Andreas Jonsson fourth after he was excluded for touching the tapes.

Slovenian Grand Prix at Krsko Qualifiers: Andreas Jonsson (1-3-3-0-3) 10, Tomasz Gollob (0-2-2-3-3) 10, Hans Andersen (0-3-3-2-2) 10, Nicki Pedersen (3-2-3-1-1) 10, Jason Crump (1-1-2-3-2) 9, Lukas Dryml (3-0-2-3-fell exc) 8, Niels-Kristian Iversen (3-2-0-ret-3) 8, Greg Hancock (2-3-1-1-1) 8, Fredrik Lindgren (1-0-1-2-3) 7, Matej Zagar (2-3-ret-2-0) 7, Scott Nicholls (1-1-1-2-2) 7, Krzysztof Kasprzak (2-0-0-3-1) 6, Chris Harris (2-1-1-1-1) 6, Leigh Adams (0-2-3-0-0) 5, Rune Holta (3-1-0-1-0) 5, Bjarne Pedersen (0-0-2-0-2) 4. Reserves: Ivan Santej dnr, Denis Stojs dnr.

Referee: Tony Steele (GB).

Ht 1: Holta, Kasprzak, Nicholls, Adams.

Ht 2: Dryml, Harris, Jonsson, B Pedersen.

Ht 3: N Pedersen, Hancock, Lindgren, Gollob.

Ht 4: Iversen, Zagar, Crump, Andersen.

Ht 5: Zagar, Gollob, Holta, B Pedersen.

Ht 6: Hancock, Iversen, Harris, Kasprzak.

Ht 7: Andersen, N Pedersen, Nicholls, Dryml (retired).

Ht 8: (re-run) Jonsson, Adams, Crump, Lindgren.

Ht 9: N Pedersen, Crump, Harris, Holta.

Ht 10: Andersen, B Pedersen, Lindgren, Kasprzak.

Ht 11: Jonsson, Gollob, Nicholls, Iversen.

Ht 12: Adams, Dryml, Hancock, Zagar (retired).

Ht 13: Dryml, Lindgren, Holta, Iversen (retired).

Ht 14: Kasprzak, Zagar, N Pedersen, Jonsson.

Ht 15: Crump, Nicholls, Hancock, B Pedersen.

Ht 16: Gollob, Andersen, Harris, Adams.

Ht 17: Jonsson, Andersen, Hancock, Holta.

Ht 18: (re-run) Gollob, Crump, Kasprzak, Dryml (fell excluded).

Ht 19: Lindgren, Nicholls, Harris, Zagar.

Ht 20: Iversen, B Pedersen, N Pedersen, Adams.

Semi-finals Ht 21: N Pedersen, Jonsson, Dryml, Iversen.

Ht 22: Gollob, Andersen, Crump, Hancock.

Final Ht 23: (re-run) Gollob, N Pedersen, Andersen, Jonsson (excluded tapes).

Grand Prix points: (after one round of 11) 1 Gollob 19 pts, 2 N Pedersen 17, 3 Andersen 14, 4 Jonsson 12, 5 Crump 10, 6 Dryml 9, 7 Iversen 8, 8 Hancock 8, 9 Lindgren 7, 10 Zagar 7, 11 Nicholls 7, 12 Kasprzak 6, 13 Harris 6, 14 Adams, 15 Holta 5, 16 B Pedersen 4.