Swiss ace Jeremy Seewer collected his first podium of the season for the Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP with third overall in the tenth round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Maggiora in northern Italy.
The Swiss took a clear holeshot in race one and maintained a commanding lead for nearly two laps before a surprise attack by the championship leader forced him off-line into the bales. The resultant crash pushed him back to fifth but he regrouped quickly to exert pressure on the rider in fourth, only to be denied for the remainder of the race as alternative lines converged in the turns to frustrate every move. Another superb start in race two saw him hold an unchallenged third place to the chequered flag to secure his first podium of the season and advance to fifth in the championship standings at the halfway stage of the series.
Jeremy Seewer: “It’s nice to be back on the box. I should be up there more often but it just hadn’t happened this year until today; I was a little lucky that Jorge crashed out but I’ll take it. But I think I deserved the podium; this is my kind of track where I am strong and I am physically ready. I don’t know exactly what happened in that second turn until I see the images. I was third turning in and I got hit from behind; I was lucky to stay up. I didn’t push as the track was still pretty sketchy after the rain and I had a solid gap to those behind. Now the goal will be to close the gap to the front guys in the next races.”
Antti Pyrhönen (KRT team manager): “MXGP is so competitive and it’s not easy to get where we want to be, but this podium is great for everyone in the team and hopefully a release for Jeremy to find more success. The team was a little down after Roman’s injury of course but we kept our heads down working to come back. The KX450-SR is so reliable and always near the front in the starts and I’m extremely proud of the way the technicians worked without a break through three back-to-back GPs in bad weather when there was already no time to rest before the long trip to Indonesia. This podium was the reward for a lot of hard work, both by Jeremy and all of the team.”
There was no joy for Bike It Kawasaki MX2 Racing Team’s Jack Chambers in the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship. The American was hindered at turn one of the first moto as other riders collided in his path but responded strongly from the back of the pack to move into the top-twenty already by the end of the opening lap and eventually finish sixteenth. After a cleaner getaway in race two he moved forward consequently from eighteenth to fifteenth before pulling out at half-distance. Quentin Marc Prugnières on another KX250 was ninth overall from ninth- and tenth-placed moto finishes.
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