Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre stormed out of the pack to finish a hard-charging runner-up in Qualifying for the Belgian round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Lommel.
The Frenchman experienced a difficult start in the Qualifying race as he touched with rivals in each of the first two turns but he needed just half a lap to surge from outside the top-ten to seventh. A further series of impressive passes in the demanding sand saw him advance to second by lap eight; he closed down the leader by a second a lap though the four remaining laps before running out of time to mount a challenge for victory. He has add another nine points to his championship scoreline and can look forward with quiet confidence to tomorrow’s GP motos, each over a race distance ten minutes longer, where his outstanding fitness and sand skills should play a role.
Romain Febvre: “Fortunately they had brought in a lot of fresh sand so that absorbed the rain, and they also worked hard to prepare the track so the conditions were good for racing. Once again I didn’t get the start; if I start fifteenth I have little chance to win. The consolation is that I only dropped one point today. Lucas also didn’t get the best start but he was still in front of me as we raced through the pack. If you have the skill and are in good shape you can make the difference here and Lucas (Coenen) and I are clearly faster than the others.”
Mathis Valin raced to sixth for Kawasaki Racing Team MX2 in Qualifying for the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship. The French teenager posted third-fastest time in practice but made life difficult for himself with a mid-pack start. He hoisted himself quickly to eighth with a good first few turns but then encountered a road-bloc rival in seventh and needed three laps to make the pass stick. When he finally made the move he faced a lonely ride but he persevered, logging consistent leaderboard laps, to earn sixth on the final lap.
Mathis Valin: “I was riding well and had a good times in the morning with third in both practices but I hit the gate in Qualifying so I took a really bad start. I passed many guys on the first lap but then I had issues with Braceras; I had to pass him twice and by then the front guys were gone. It should be an interesting race tomorrow.”
Photocredits – Pascal Haudiquert
