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Michael Freund has surpassed himself once again by winning the fifth leg of the FEI World Cup Driving in Leipzig, Germany. But since he received a wild-card entry from the organisation and was therefore not entitled for World Cup points, the full amount of points went to Switzerland's Werner Ulrich, who came second. Australia's Boyd Exell came third.

Ulrich, who also came second behind Freund in Stuttgart, was very pleased with his results: ?I was a bit unlucky in the warm-up round, where I made an unnecessary mistake. But I knew I had not much to loose and I took the right risks during the World Cup competition.? Ulrich has a half-blood trotter in the lead of his team, which makes the team go faster every time. ?I am looking forward to the last competition in G?eborg, for which I am qualified now. Freund is hard to beat, but there will be a nice battle between Exell and me, since we are on the same number of points.?

British-based Boyd Exell admitted he drove a little too fast in the first round, but felt he was going well in the winning round. Unfortunately he took a difficult line and knocked one of the obstacles over, which cost him precious penalty seconds.

Sweden's Tomas Eriksson's team went very fast and just missed a place in the winning round when they hit a ball in the last obstacle. His compatriots Nicke P'sson and Fredrik Persson had to be content with the fifth and seventh place respectively at their first performance in Leipzig. Second wild card driver Steffen Scholz received a few tips from his master Michael Freund and drove, supported by the enthusiastic crowd, a very nice clear round and was very pleased with his sixth position.

Course designer Wolfgang Asendorf, who is also responsible for the course at the World Championships in Aachen 2006, was very much praised by the drivers. ?We are in the fourth season of the FEI World Cup Driving and the course in Leipzig is one of the few that was very good from the beginning,? explains Michael Freund. ?We drove different routes in the warm up and the World Cup competition, but we all drove fluently which made the results very close.? This made it altogether very exciting and interesting for the spectators, for whom the carriage driving in Leipzig has become one of the biggest attractions.

Michael Freund is in the lead of the World Cup standings and is certain of a starting place for the final FEI World Cup competition in G?eborg, as well as Boyd Exell and Werner Ulrich who currently share the second place.

The next FEI World Cup driving event takes place in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, on 19 & 20 March 2005. Home driver IJsbrand Chardon will compete against Sweden's Tomas Eriksson and Nicke P'sson and the Hungarian drivers Jozsef Dobrovitz and Zoltan Lazar.

For all results and current points standings in the 2004-5 FEI World Cup, please CLICK HERE.

The official World Cup website is at www.worldcupdriving.com