Former world champion Christophe Pourcel suffered a disastrous dual DNF in his highly anticipated return to the Motocross World Championship last weekend in Germany.

Pourcel made a last minute decision to return to the GPs for the first time in four years for Kawasaki Team CLS, but a lack of race time on his new bike was soon evident as he pulled out of both motos on Sunday.

Despite racing to a solid sixth place in Saturday’s qualifying race, Pourcel cited a number of unusual problems for his non-finishes.

“It was nice to be back in the GPs, even if the tracks are so different from those in the U.S,” he explained. “I qualified in sixth position and got twice took a top ten start, but in the first race I got hit by too many stones on my upper body and retired.

“The track was very different for the second moto, and our settings were not working as well as I would have liked; we’ve only been testing a few hours since I came back from USA last week.

“I need to work more with the team to set up the bike to my style and the European tracks.”

Pourcel has taken over from Kiwi Ben Townley, who opted out of the series for the time being as he continues to recover from a string of pre-season injuries.