It was another weekend of heavy rain and mud for the MXGP of Spain. Lugo hosted round eight where our team had to endure more tough conditions but this didn’t stop our boys showing good pace.
Gyan qualified 4th in timed practice but the times were very tight, he was just 0.4 off of pole position. In race one Gyan had a top 10 start and was showing good speed with consistent lap times with that of the front runners. With the fast pace of the track Gyan finished in 7th. Race two on Sunday however was a different story, with heavy rainfall overnight and into the day the hard and fast track turned into a very wet and sloppy track. Despite this Gyan secured a good start and rode a steady race in tricky conditions to bring it home in 4th place along with 4th overall for the weekend. He sits 7th in the championship standings.
In the MX2 class it was a similar story with tight times again in timed qualifying with Oriol having 14th in timed practice and improving to 12th in the qualifying race. In race one Oriol had a top 10 start but crashed in the tricky conditions early on, he remounted and worked his way back to 16th place. For race two Oriol worked hard on the opening lap and put himself in the top 10. By lap 5 he had secured 9th place and was riding well. Unfortunately this was short lived as on lap 6 another rider collided with him causing him to crash. He remounted quickly despite this and finished in 11th place for 13th overall.
Oriol: “Not the best weekend but not the worst. Two crashes in both motos, still we couldn’t make a perfect weekend but I think we are getting near. The track conditions where really technical this weekend, so it was important to get a good start, to see the good lines from the fast guys and to go with the speed of them but we did our best. The first moto after a crash and loosing all of the time we could only finish 16th but second moto the start was a little better, I was able to make some good moves. I was running good in 9th position with not riding over the limit, then one guy block passed me and crashed. I lost two positions and finished 11th with an ok rhythm, I did have a bent leaver but it was ok. We want more for sure but for the moment it was like this and the good thing is that I am feeling really good on the bike, we will still improve some things with the team so yeah just continue working and the rest will come soon”
Gyan: “Positive weekend in spain. Went in with a different mindset and a different mentality. Felt good all weekend long just didn’t have the extra bit to really be up there but we are inching closer!! P4 in qualifying and 7-4 in the races for my best overall in P4. Can’t wait to improve myself and show what i can do in france! Thanks to the team and everyone around me!”
Team Manager Shaun Simpson: “Another wet one in Lugo, Saturday was actually reasonably dry and quite a decent track but was not especially good for racing as it wasn’t very rough and pretty much where you started was where you finished. Oriol managed to get 12th in the qualifying race which gave him a good enough pick for the Sunday motos and Gyan really couldn’t make much of it and just sort of rode around in 7th place. His times were actually good enough to see him run up front but it was all down to track position. Then heavens opened and Sunday was a completely different track, we made a good choice on the start for Gyan up the inside, very smart and held it round the inside. Unfortunately lost a couple of positions but still finished 4th for 4th overall and up to 7th in the championship, defiantly moving in the right direction, maybe a little slower progress than Gyan is looking for but from where I looking at defiantly going in the right direction so we should be knocking on the door for podium soon. Oriol was a little unlucky in the motos on Sunday, the first one was tricky conditions, went down at the beginning of the race and just struggled to find his rhythm and to come through for 16th. Then the second moto he was actually riding quite well inside the top 10 before he was taken out by another rider, but again the speed during the motos without these mistakes and unforeseen issues would see him running comfortably in the top 6, so I think its only a mater of time before the sun starts shining and we start getting the results from both riders that we feel like they deserve. A huge credit to the crew for their job in the conditions and we are all looking forward to Canada heights this weekend.”
Next Event: 18th May | MXGB | Canada Heights, Kent
📸 Juan Pablo Acevedo
