Chardon, who had competed on 12 previous occasions in the Belgian city, led a one-two ahead of Australia's Boyd Exell for the second time this season.

They clocked times of 128.71 and 134.55 seconds respectively, while Swiss driver Jerome Voutaz was third in 140.97.

Five-time Mechelen-winner Koos de Ronde of The Netherlands was a fraction of a second too slow to qualify for the winning round, in which the top three drivers started from scratch again.

Belgium’s Glenn Geerts, who like Exell and De Ronde competed with a wild card, took fifth place.

Dutch level four course designer Jeroen Houterman had created a challenging course with three marathon type obstacles and a bridge.

Exell made a mistake twice in the third marathon obstacle, which cost him precious seconds in the first round and a knock down in the winning round.

He did, however, put the pressure on Chardon, who was the last man and successfully added to his victory at the season opener in German city Stuttgart.

"The footing was quite heavy, which made my horses a bit stronger," said Chardon.

"I did not have the great feeling I had when I won in Stuttgart, but I will keep on working on this team.

"My left leader horse is new in my team this season and he needs competition rhythm.

"I want to show that he can do it and he is on 80 per cent compared to where he was in Stuttgart and I need him to be 100 per cent in order to have the best feeling for the final in Gothenburg.

"My win here was not a gift, I like to win on my own strength."

Voutaz qualified for the winning round with an extremely quick drive in which he was three seconds faster than Chardon.

One knock down kept him from taking the lead though and in the second round, which took place over a shortened course, the mechanic by profession picked up one ball again.

Since Exell, De Ronde and Geerts competed with wild cards, the World Cup points went to The Netherlands’ Theo Timmerman and Germany’s Georg von Stein and Rainer Duen.

Timmerman came sixth tonight, while Von Stein was seventh and Duen eighth.

Duen has completed his four World Cup events and collected seven points, which is not enough for him to qualify for the final.

Exell leads the World Cup standings on 27 points after six of eight events, followed by Hungary’s Jozsef Dobrovitz on 21 and De Ronde and Chardon on 20.