Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre bounced back from a frustrating first moto in the Dutch round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Arnhem to consolidate his second place in the series standings with a battling fifth in race two.
Optimism was high after the Frenchman had posted second-fastest lap during morning warm-up but that was cruelly negated at turn one of the first moto as he touched a rear wheel and was knocked over from behind. By lap two he was back into the points and continued to push to finish tenth, in the wheeltracks of ninth. The second moto start was again disappointing as Febvre got stood up in turn one after a decent start to hold ninth through the first few turns. He pushed forward to eighth before the end of the first lap and closed down the rider in seventh but then spent eight laps seeking a way past. During the second half of the moto he continued to advance to fifth at the finish and now has a comfortable forty-one point advantage over third in the series standings with just three rounds remaining.
Romain Febvre: “Somebody hit me on my elbow at the first turn of race one; I could come back to tenth at the finish but I was in pain all moto. I just couldn’t find my rhythm at the beginning of race two; at the end I was getting better but the gap was too big to the guys just ahead of me. I was not on the pace of those at the very front, but neither was anybody else. Anyway, I now have a weekend off from racing; it’s the first for a long time and then I will be ready for the last three rounds.”
KRT teammate Pauls Jonass gated well in the first moto but was nudged by another rival going into turn one to emerge twelfth. The Latvian was quickly into the top-ten and pushed forward to ninth on lap five, holding the position solidly until the final minutes of the moto when he dropped back to eleventh. A hectic start left him buried initially in eighteenth in race two; fast moves saw him fourteenth at the end of the first lap and after twenty minutes he was tenth, the position he then held to the chequered flag, for ninth overall on the day and tenth in the championship.
Pauls Jonass: “Not an easy day. I was riding better in the second moto but I started further back; in the first moto I was fighting the track all moto and just didn’t have the flow. But it all started with the poor gate-pick from yesterday; I got good jumps out of the gate but I was just too far outside to take the starts. Ninth overall doesn’t look too bad but it’s not where we want to be; we will keep working to be better through the last three GPs.”
It was a day of two very different races for DRT Kawasaki’s Kay Karssemakers in the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship as he bounced back in race two from a first moto setback. The Dutch youngster had arrived at his home GP with realistic hopes of a top-five finish but it quickly became clear that fortune was not smiling on him in race one as he was forced off-track by an errant rival at the first turn and, trying to regain lost ground quickly, he was involved in a collision with another rider further round the lap, breaking off the clutch lever. He bravely tried to continue but it soon became evident that the handicap would prove too great on such a rugged track and he withdrew on lap four. A change of tactic at the start of race two saw him cut back under the pack in turn one to carry good speed along the following straight and break the beam at the first timing split eleventh. A confident first lap saw him advance to ninth, a position he held comfortably until a couple of slow laps as he lost his rhythm cost him a position at the twenty-minute stage. He then showed his experience in such physically demanding track conditions to regroup, drop his lap times again and charge back to a deserved ninth at the finish. He retains eleventh in the series standings.
Kay Karssemakers: “I felt good yesterday in Timed Practice, really close to the top-five and Qualifying was also going well in sixth until I had a problem and DNF so I had last gate-pick for Sunday. I tried to go outside at the first start and went off the track but I was already back to thirteenth when I collided with another rider on the first lap, went into the fence and broke off the clutch lever. I got a pretty good start in the second race but I soon had really bad arm pump and had to drop back. Four or five laps from the end I got rid of the arm pump and could push again for ninth, but this wasn’t what I wanted for my home GP when I know I had the speed for much more.”
