Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre narrowly missed victory in the Qualifying race for the British round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at the Foxhills Moto Parc.
The Frenchman posted fourth-fastest time in Timed Practice and used his good gate-pick to immediately slot into third in the Qualifying race. He was clearly faster than the riders ahead of him but the rider in second was riding a clever defensive race to continually protect his position as their lines came together. During the closing stages both riders passed the initial leader and, although he closed the gap to his race-long rival on the final lap, the Kawasaki leader had to content himself with second, just over a second behind the winner.
Romain Febvre: “I took quite a good start and I expected it to be easier to pass with many lines in the morning, but in the end it was more difficult than I thought as the lines came together so I could not take my rhythm, and the low sun mde it tricky on the hills at the end of the day. I took Tom at the end and came back to Fernandez so the race was OK but I should have won that race. The track became hard really quickly during the course of the day; I guess that is the nature of the ground.”
KRT teammate Pauls Jonass was pushed wide at the first turn of Qualifying from his tenth gate-pick but struck back quickly to move into eighth on the opening lap before a slip on lap five pushed him back to twelfth. By the finish he had again moved forward to tenth to claim the final championship point of the race.
Pauls Jonass: “I felt good in the morning but then I had quite a dumb crash on the last lap of Free Practice when I tried a different line to see how it worked; the rear wheel slid out on a drop-off and I hit the chalk wall hard. I needed stitches in my elbow and I’m a bit banged up but it wasn’t too painful during the race. I was coming through well in the race but I had a small tip-over, lost quite a few places and it was too late to pull back again to where I was. The track changed quite a lot during the day – from wet and grippy in the morning to hardpack for Quali – so I think we need to make a few changes to the bike settings for tomorrow to feel more comfortable. The overall feeling was good; just the result was disappointing.”
It was a frustrating twenty-second birthday for DRT Kawasaki’s Kay Karssemakers in Qualifying for the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship in his team’s home GP. The Dutchman paid the penalty for a wide run into turn one from nineteenth gate-pick and was back in twenty-second at the first timing split. A good first lap saw him advance to fifteenth and two laps later he was thirteenth but that was the end of his surge as the first dozen were also GP regulars.
UK wild card entries Taylor Hammal (DRT Kawasaki), nineteenth in MXGP, and the Sevenseven2 Ride Kawasaki duo of Tristan Purdon, twenty-first in MXGP, and Joel Rizzi, twenty-fifth in MX2, each posted commendable results against the world elite and can look forward confidently to the chance of world championship points tomorrow.
Photo Credits: Stanley Leroux / Pascal Haudiquert
