News 27 Jul 2015

Febvre sweeps Czech Republic MXGP weekend

MX2 title race tightens after dramatic Loket round.

Source: Yamaha Racing.

Source: Yamaha Racing.

The slippery chewed up clay of Loket made for tight lap times and edge of your seat racing for everyone except Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Romain Febvre who was in a league of his own this weekend as he blitzed his way to a double race victory for his fifth MXGP overall of the season.

Meanwhile in MX2, Standing Construct Yamaha Yamalube’s Valentin Guillod used his unique and creative line choice to land on the top step of the box for the third time this year.

All aboard the Romain Febvre express! Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s exceptional young rookie strengthened his MXGP title campaign this weekend in impressive style and now leads Team HRC’s Gautier Paulin by a whopping 88 points.

Team HRC’s Evgeny Bobryshev finally got around the first turn scotch free and was clearly the second fastest this weekend with his two second place finishes for second overall. With the field slightly decimated by injuries, there is a good possibility the Russian will take over third in the championship at the next round as he only trails the injured Cairoli by 27 points.

It was a solid return for Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MXGP’s Clement Desalle who rounded off the podium with his third place in both races. Meanwhile his teammate and fellow countryman Kevin Strijbos had a bit of a mediocre day, by his standards, for fourth while Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Jeremy Van Horebeek made for three Belgians inside the top five.

It was a mixed weekend for Husqvarna-mounted Australian duo Todd Waters and Dean Ferris, both suffering a DNF each. Waters crashed out of moto one before rebounding to 13th in the second, while Ferris went 16th despite an early fall in moto one, but was unable to finish the second.

Chaos is almost defining the 2015 FIM MX2 World Championship with all of the fastest riders facing some sort of adversity and one point or another. The championship leader Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings will not line up again this year, which has left the championship wide-open.

Standing Construct Yamaha Yamalube’s Valentin Guillod looked super fast all weekend with his super smooth and flamboyant style ironing out a lot of the gnarly bumps here in Loket. Despite crashing a number of times, the Swiss rider bounced back on every occasion to go 1-2 for his third overall victory of the season.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pauls Jonass brightened the atmosphere under the orange awning with his impressive third and fourth place finishes for second overall. Last year’s MX2 grand prix of the Czech Republic winner was Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jordi Tixier, finishing third on Sunday.

Meanwhile Kemea Yamaha Yamalube’s Benoit Paturel and Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Petar Petrov each put in season best performance to round out the top five in that order. Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki’s Max Anstie and Honda Gariboldi’s Tim Gajser added to the MX2 mayhem this weekend with their bittersweet performances.

Anstie put in a phenomenal ride in race one for a convincing victory but crashed out of the lead in race two when his hand came off of the handlebars on the approach to the waves which saw him hit the deck hard, whereas Gajser DNF’d the first race after coming together with Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe’s Jeremy Seewer but bounced back for second place in race two.

It was a day of peaks and pits at the sixth and final round of the 2015 FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship. Making up the ‘peaks’ were the performances of Yamaha riders Nancy Van de Ven and Kiara Fontanesi who both came away winners, while it was the pits for the championship leader Team One One Four’s Livia Lancelot who had the title slide through her fingers after a mechanical failure on the sighting lap meant she couldn’t even start the final race.

It was set to be the greatest race of the season. Two of the best female motocrossers in the world, both champions in their own rights, were supposed to go head to head for the 2015 WMX title.

Only four points separated the two, Lancelot led and it was expected to be intense, but instead of being the nail-biting finale we had awaited, it ended before it even began when Livia Lancelot’s bike ceased on the siting lap.

Lancelot changed bikes, which meant she was not permitted to start and had to watch Fontanesi cruise to what should have been a hard fought victory, easily.

Putting the championship drama aside, the stand out performer this weekend was Holland’s young WMX prodigy Nancy Van de Ven who took her first race victory yesterday and then put in another epic performance today for the win and her first ever WMX overall.

2015 MXGP World Championship
Round 13 – Loket, Czech Republic

MXGP overall results:
1. Romain Febvre 50
2. Evgeny Bobryshev 44
3. Clement Desalle 40
4. Kevin Strijbos 34
5. Jeremy Van Horebeek 34
6. Shaun Simpson 30
7. Gautier Paulin 28
8. Glenn Coldenhoff 23
9. Tyla Rattray 22
10. Nathan Watson 22
17. Todd Waters (AUS) 8
20. Dean Ferris (AUS) 5

MXGP championship standings:
1. Romain Febvre 507
2. Gautier Paulin 419
3. Antonio Cairoli 416
4. Evgeny Bobryshev 389
5. Maximilian Nagl 360
6. Clement Desalle 331
7. Shaun Simpson 306
8. Jeremy Van Horebeek 294
9. Glenn Coldenhoff 266
10. Kevin Strijbos 257
11. Todd Waters (AUS) 250
12. Dean Ferris (AUS) 189

MX2 overall results:
1. Valentin Guillod 47
2. Pauls Jonass 38
3. Jordi Tixier 36
4. Benoit Paturel 34
5. Petar Petrov 30
6. Julien Lieber 27
7. Max Anstie 25
8. Jeremy Seewer 24
9. Brent Van doninck 24
10. Tim Gajser 22

MX2 championship standings:
1. Jeffrey Herlings 423
2. Tim Gajser 399
3. Valentin Guillod 399
4. Pauls Jonass 389
5. Jordi Tixier 370
6. Jeremy Seewer 369
7. Max Anstie 337
8. Julien Lieber 305
9. Aleksandr Tonkov 256
10. Benoit Paturel 236

Click here for detailed results

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