Jeremy Seewer of Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP swept to his first moto win of the season in the Turkish round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Afyon; a battling ride through the pack in race two also earned his second podium of the year.
In race one the Swiss powered out of the gate to take his fifth holeshot of the season and he was never headed. He maintained his composure and concentration to inch relentlessly ever further clear with the fastest laps of the race until he had a lead of nearly seven seconds by half-distance and could then control the race to the finish. The front wheel lifted momentarily out of the gate and he was closed down heading into turn one to be left on the edge of the top-ten initially. He had already secured the podium when he advanced to eighth on lap two but kept pushing to take seventh on lap eleven, sixth two laps later and narrowly missed the fifth placing in moto which would have lifted him from P3 to second overall. He is now almost certain to end the season fourth in the series; the top-three is no longer mathematically possible but he is sixty-six points clear of fifth with just 120 points still available.
Jeremy Seewer: “With a start like that it always makes life easier. I’ve been feeling good all weekend but I even surprised myself today; those top-three have been so fast this year so to beat them was an achievement. I took the holeshot in race one and soon got a gap so I could relax and play with the track. I kept pushing for half the race, then I could move into cruise mode to control the race. My riding was good in the second race too but I got squeezed after the gate and had to ride through the pack. I almost caught Glenn, which would have given me P2 overall, but the most important success this weekend was that moto win; We’ve been working for this and the hard work finally paid off.”
Romain Febvre had a dramatic start to the first moto when he was sandwiched by his gate-neighbours as they powered out of the gate; he tangled bars with one of them and crashed spectacularly on the run down to turn one. He was back into the top-ten within two laps but it then proved difficult to advance further up he leaderboard on the ultra-fast single-line track; he eventually moved into his final seventh on the last lap. The Frenchman had a clean run through the opening lap of moto two to hold a clear fourth throughout the race. He was rewarded with fourth overall on the day and has advanced back to fifth in the series points-standings despite missing five GPs mid-summer.
Romain Febvre: “At the start of the first race another rider hit me and I crashed in the start straight; I was dead-last and came back pretty well with a good speed, but on this track it’s so difficult to pass that I lost time just to come back in the top-ten. Then it was more difficult, even if my lap times were just one second slower than the leaders even while I was behind other riders. It’s a shame as I was sure that a good result was possible, and I used a lot of energy in this comeback. Second moto my start was good; I was immediately fourth and I was able to follow the leaders for the first ten minutes but then they made the gap.”
Photocredits Full Spectrum Media
