Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre has earnt fourth gate-pick for tomorrow’s sixth round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Lugo in the Galicia region of north-west Spain.
The elegant Frenchman had posted third-fastest time during practice and quickly moved into fourth to track down the leaders in the Qualifying race. On lap six he powered cleverly into third, a position he held until a momentary slip in a left-hand turn three laps from the close pushed him back to fourth at the finish.
Romain Febvre: “I immediately had a good feeling on the track, even this morning when it was wet after the storm, and the Timed Practice session went well with a third position, only half a second from the pole position. In the Quali race I had a pretty good start in fourth position; I passed Herlings for third and was close to Gajser with good lap times at mid-race, but with three laps to go I lost my balance in a rut and crashed so Herlings could pass me back and I finished fourth. Everything is there for a good result with a good start; I have good speed but I must avoid any mistakes. The track is technical with many ruts and lines so it’s nice for passing opportunities.”
KRT teammate Jeremy Seewer gated seventh in the Qualifying race and could soon advance to sixth but the front runners had already broken clear and the Swiss had to be content with maintaining that position to the chequered flag.
Jeremy Seewer: “My pace was OK and no mistakes so sixth was a solid Quali. We are not where we want to be but we are getting closer to the guys who are in there battling for the win; we just need to put our heads down and we’ll be back in the game. It’s a very special track – technical and lots of bumps – but it’s small. The start will will be important again tomorrow; it was scary today when Calvin closed the door on me from the outside. It’s a new track for most of us so we are still learning and we will make a few adjustments for tomorrow to try to make me feel more comfortable.”
Bike It Kawasaki MX2 Racing Team’s Jack Chambers rocketed out of the start in Qualifying for the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship to run inside the top-ten until an incident with another rider on the opening lap saw him fall. Remounting around twentieth the young American rode a strong race from there to advance back to fourteenth at the finish.
Jack Chambers: “I got a decent start – around seventh to ninth – in Quali but those first few laps are always hectic; I got close to another rider on the first lap, had a little fall, scraped my elbow again and that put me back to twentieth. I felt really solid with my racing but that fall on the first lap cost me. I need good laps at the beginning tomorrow and we can have two good motos. I like the track; it’s super cool and very technical in many ways, not just the soil. The bumps quickly got square-edged and choppy and the shadows played a factor too with the sunlight flickering through the trees.”
His English teammate Bobby Bruce moved forward to thirteenth at one stage of Qualification before a couple of title-chasers came past and a couple of small errors in the closing laps also proved costly to finish eighteenth.
Bobby Bruce: “I think that was my best race so far this year so we’ll hopefully keep climbing the ladder from here. The track changed a lot during the course of the day; it was quite fast in practice and I didn’t feel too comfortable but it developed well through the day and the insides started to come into play so it should be a good race tomorrow.”
