Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre raced to second place in Qualifying for the Czech round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Loket as he continues to revive his world title defence.
Already a three-time GP winner at the switchback track in the north-western corner of the Czech Republic Febvre was content to post third-fastest time in Timed Practice as less than a second covered the first-five with a very open choice of gate. The Frenchman made a mid-gate pick to emerge fifth from turn one before settling down through the hectic first couple of laps. A superbly calculated pass, lined up through a combination of several turns, saw him advance to fourth on lap three and he followed that up with successive passes on consecutive laps to establish himself in a solid second before half-distance and bring it home, closing a further nine points on the current points-leader.
Romain Febvre: “The result in Qualifying was OK but I was not riding at my best all day. The track was drier than usual and we were trying many different settings each session, but we ended up racing with the wrong set-up. But that’s OK; now we know the direction for tomorrow.”
Febvre was the sole KRT rider at Loket. Teammate Pauls Jonass suffered a big crash last weekend in England and the medical protocol of the world governing body FIM preclude a rider from competing within seven days for safety reasons.
Antti Pyrhönen (KRT team manager): “The first priority is always the rider’s health and recovery so it would be too early for Pauls to race here after the crash he had in England, and of course the FIM has its protocol which has to be respected.
Regarding Mathis (Valin) his recovery is going well; he didn’t need an operation, but you need to let the injury heal properly. He is working a lot with the physio and also to maintain his physical condition. He is in a positive mood and looking forward to getting back to racing. He has a medical control in a few days and we hope that he will get the green light to start training on the bike again.”
DRT Kawasaki’s Dutchman Kay Karssemakers recorded his best-ever result at the Czech hard-pack track by finishing eleventh in Qualifying for the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship. With a typically aggressive opening lap he converted a twelfth-placed start to ninth at the end of lap one but had been pushed back to eleventh by lap three. Undeterred by the mistake he persisted to the finish, narrowly missing championship points in eleventh but confident of more on race day tomorrow after taking the chequered flag within sight of eighth.
Kay Karssemakers: “I didn’t find a good flow in Timed Practice but I got a really good start from mid-gate in Qualifying and was running top-ten until I made one slip. I was happy with my riding in the race and can look forward confidently to the GP races tomorrow.”
