The Czech Grand Prix has seen CLS Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Christophe Pourcel come away with ninth overall in the MX1 class for the weekend, his first top ten of the 2011 season.

More encouraging again for the Frenchman is the fact that the result still doesn’t quite reflect his speed, after bad starts, goggle issues and bad track conditions hindered him, particularly in the first moto.

“We’ve done a good job with the team throughout the weekend to change the settings of the engine as the track conditions changed with the rain,” Pourcel commented.

“There was mainly one line on the track and my first start was not so good and I didn’t take any risks.”

“In the second race I passed many riders during the first lap, but it was still difficult to pass. I was faster than many other riders but if you took another line you lost too much time to be able to pass them!” the Frenchman added.

While only taking 13th in moto one due to the bad start, the second moto saw Pourcel mixing it with championship frontrunners, Red Bull Teka KTM Factory Racing’s Antonio Cairoli and Max Nagl.

After a year that has seen him mysteriously sit out the American Supercross season, only to come back to Europe and struggle with machine setup, resulting in DNFs and even sitting out some GP rounds, the strong ride shows he still has the form to once again challenge for wins.

“I was racing with Cairoli and Nagl, and it was great to see that I had the same rhythm and I was happy with the bike, especially the suspension,” Pourcel commented.

“I had some troubles with my goggles as I got a stone in my roll-off during the second moto so I couldn’t see so well but overall I’m happy with my weekend. I was strong during both motos; now we have to work on the start as I saw this weekend how competitive and consistent the MX1 riders are.”

The MX1 World Motocross Championship now heads to Manchester, UK for the third to last round of the series on August 21.