Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre set the fastest laps of the Qualifying race for the Latvian round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Kegums but had to be satisfied with third gate-pick for tomorrow’s GP motos.
A fifth-placed start for the Frenchman saw him chasing his main championship rivals at the head of the field but his incomparable turning skills saw him execute a magnificent inside-pass for fourth within half a lap and three laps later he again held a tight inside-line to move into third. Setting a succession of sub-two-minute laps he hauled back the front two and the proverbial blanket could have covered the trio during the final laps of the race. Respecting an unfortunate waved yellow flag for a fallen backmarker cost momentum as he lined up his first potential last-lap pass and two further challenges came up short by inches as time ran out to make the decisive pass in the twenty-five minute sprint as the front-three distanced the pack by more than twenty seconds.
Romain Febvre: “I had a good feeling on the track and third is OK but once again I couldn’t find a spot to make a pass. There’s only one good line on the tracks and if your rival doesn’t make a mistake you can’t do anything! I had the same speed as Jeffrey and Lucas, but there is not a single place where you can try a different line. The start is now more important than ever; we are working on that point but it’s not easy! Last night it rained and this morning it was muddy so we’ll see how the weather will be tomorrow; the positive point is that I will have a better gate-pick tomorrow – third instead of fifth – as we know that here the position on the gate is so important with a 180 degrees first turn.”
Kawasaki Racing Team MX2’s Mathis Valin posted fourth-fastest time in Timed Practice for the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship. Sixth at the completion of a hectic opening lap in the Qualifying race the French teenager pushed forward to fifth on lap four and resisted impressively against the two most-proficient sand-riding experts in the class for six laps before taking the chequered flag seventh.
Mathis Valin: “The day started well with fourth in Timed Practice, so I had a good pick for the start in Qualifying. The track had dried out a lot since this morning and was very bumpy for the race; I didn’t get the best start but I passed some guys in the first few laps and then I was fighting with the top guys in sand. That is the best option to learn from them; Everts got past me but I could keep De Wolf behind for many laps.”
In the wake of a couple of relatively disappointing rounds of the European EMX250 Motocross Championship Team Venum Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Francisco Garcia got his challenge back on track with a powerful ride up the leaderboard in the first moto of the weekend to confirm the pace he had shown as he posted second-fastest time in Timed Practice. The Spanish youngster moved from a twelfth-placed start to sixth within a lap and continued to make strong passes to reach third by lap four. The front two had already escaped but the Kawasaki rider, regularly setting the fastest laps, closed the gap dramatically, sweeping into second with three laps remaining, and he continued his pace to finish just three seconds behind the winner He has consolidated his third place in the series points-standings and pulled back six points on second heading into tomorrow morning’s second moto of the weekend. A first lap crash demoted Bud teammate Jake Cannon to thirty-first but the Australian teenager responded well to pull back to fifteenth until a last-lap incident with a fallen rider put him out of the race.
Francisco Garcia: “I was riding really well with a good feeling for the track today, but the guy from my left cut my line straight out of the gate so my start was not so good. Still, I made some good passes and I was riding so fast at the end to come close to the win. Tomorrow is another opportunity.”
Photocredits – Pascal Haudiquert
