A potential podium place went begging for Australia’s Dean Ferris at the FIM World Motocross Championship Grand Prix of Germany, with a fall while running towards the front proving particularly costly.

After equalling a season-best performance of second at Finland a fortnight ago, the Monster Energy Yamaha rider was carrying plenty of confidence to the 13th bout of the world championship season at the Lausitzring.

Ferris battled MX2 class teammate Christophe Charlier for second early in the opening moto, but the sweltering conditions and a particularly physical track took their toll, resulting in a fall from the Aussie and an eventual finish of ninth.

The YZ250F rider was swamped at the start of the second moto, but, to his credit, clawed his way back into contention to reach fifth place, and take sixth overall for the day.

“Today was a bit bittersweet because I threw away the first moto and there could have possibly been a podium for me today,” explained Ferris. “I have thrown away a couple this year and it is a bit disappointing.

“Anyway, I carved through the pack really quickly in the second moto. I got stuck behind (Alessandro) Lupino for a while but his bike expired and that made it easy for me.

“With five laps to go I felt the rear brake fade. (Jose Antonio) Butron was six or seven seconds behind me and when he caught up there was not much I could do.”

Despite the mixed results in Germany, Ferris is confident that he was able to show pace to match it with the podium-getters and hoped for more favourable results in the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic.

“Since the changes we made to the set-up before Finland my pace has been right up there,” said Ferris. “We’ll move on a try to get on the box again next week.”

The Monster Energy Yamaha-mounted Ferris sits sixth overall in the race for the MX2-GP title, with 341 points to his credit.