A damaged rear wheel denied Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre a potential top-three finish in Qualifying for the Sardinian round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Riola Sardo.
After posting fastest time during Free Practice and third-fastest in Timed Training he was quietly confident headed into the Qualifying race and, with speeds unusually high following several weeks of fine weather, found good drive through the waves at the start of lap four to sweep into fifth around the sand track in the dunes overlooking the Mediterranean. He had his sights clearly set on third three laps later before the spokes in the rear wheel started to break up and he was forced to enter the pits for the mechanics to fit a new wheel. With fire in his stomach he immediately lapped faster than the leaders to pull back through traffic to twenty-first and will have to start from that gate position in each of tomorrow’s thirty-minute-plus-two-lap GP motos.
The Frenchman will be the only representative of the Kawasaki Racing Team this weekend. MXGP teammate Pauls Jonass crashed during the morning Free Training session and it was decided that he should not ride again for the remainder of the weekend as a precaution; the Latvian will undergo further medical checks during the coming week. It had already been decided during the week that KRT MX2 rider Mathis Valin should sit out the Sardinian GP to allow the wrist injury he sustained last month in Spain more time to fully recuperate.
Antti Pyrhönen (KRT team manager): “We know how brutal our sport can be; today was simply a bad day at the office. There was an unfortunate start to the day when Pauls fell at the start of Free Practice; it was a big crash with a heavy impact and it was clear that his weekend was over. Now he flies back to Belgium for further checks but at the moment it appears that he has no further injury. Romain was having a good race in Qualifying; he was in P5 and had everything under control but somehow there came a problem with the rear spokes and he needed to come into the pits to change the wheel; we will try to understand what has happened. Obviously this is not the best way to go into race day because it will be tough from an outside gate-pick but the season is long and there are always ups-and-downs for everyone at some stage. There are no easy days at Riola and it is still possible to get a decent start and a solid race from the outside so let’s continue these three back-to-back GPs with confidence.”
Photocredits Full Spectrum Media
