CLS Kawasaki Monster Energy Pro Circuit’s Tommy Searle missed his first podium on the tie-break at the thirteenth round of the FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship, held at the Lausitzring in Germany.
The Englishman felt immediately at home on the track which had been built in five days inside turn one of the German road racing track and, after setting fastest lap in Pre-Qualifying, he defied all comers to collect his first win in a qualifying race since moving to the MX1 GP class this year. Although he gated well in both motos on race day, Tommy got caught up with other riders through the vital opening turns each time and spent both races chasing the leaders. Although as physically fit as anyone the Englishman was not used to the extreme temperatures as the mercury hit 38 degrees Celsius each day and eventually had to slacken his pace a little in the closing laps. His 38-point haul was his best this year and moved the Brit significantly closer to fifth in the standings.
Gautier Paulin of the Kawasaki Racing Team had completed a Kawasaki 1-2 on Saturday and the Frenchman set a tremendous pace to lead for six laps of the opening GP moto before crashing over a berm. He suffered severe concussion and was kept in hospital overnight for observation, but should be able to contest next weekend’s Czech GP. The resultant loss of points has dropped Gautier from second to fourth in the series, but has fond memories of the Loket track he will race next week, having scored the second GP victory of his career for Kawasaki at the hillside track in 2009.
KRT teammate Jeremy Van Horebeek had an unfortunate crash during the qualification race and, having damaged the bike, was unable to finish and had only 25th choice of gate. He advanced forward from the inevitable midpack starts to finish seventh in race one and thirteenth in race two. Although this was his lowest GP score since April, the Belgian moved up one place in the standings to seventh.
Tommy Searle: “I’m disappointed to miss the podium, as I scored the same number of points as the third man today. I had a good weekend with a third and a fourth place; I never scored so many points this year in one GP and it’s a lot better than the last three GPs. The first race was good, unfortunately in the second race I had a small crash when I was in third not so far from Desalle. On Saturday I won the MX1 qualifying race for the first time, but today my starts were not as good. It was really hot for the races; I didn’t felt so bad in the first race but in the second one I felt the heat and didn’t ride as good as I should in this race.”
Jeremy Van Horebeek: “I never felt really comfortable on this track, and after the crash during the qualifying race I lost some confidence. I was in sixth position when I crashed pretty hard in a rhythm section; the bike was damaged and I had to start today from the twenty-fifth gate. My starts were not really good and I was in the pack in both races and struggled to pass; I came back to seventh in the first race, but in the second one it was tough with the heat and I couldn’t do better than thirteenth. It’s my worst result since Holland, but I’m already focused on the GP in the Czech Republic next weekend.”
