MX2

LOKET (Czech Republic), 26 July 2015 - 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. Although the young Frenchman has taken the world by storm, he still remains very humble, “I am excited for the title, but I was already happy with third place in MX2 last year, now I am battling for the title in MXGP on my first year. So it is exciting but I know there are still five rounds to go and anything can happen if it’s in training or at the GP, so it’s not finished.”

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. “Romain was on fire today so it was difficult to follow him,” he said, “but I am happy that I had two consistent races because the track was quite tricky in both motos, so I am really happy to go home in one piece and to be on the podium.” 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. “I am really happy to still be up front but on the other hand I am sad that my championship has gone like this, but I am happy to be back and I am really happy to take a FOX Holeshot.” He smiled. 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.

MXGP Race 1 Top Ten: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), 35:06.583; 2. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:09.363; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), +0:12.260; 4. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +0:13.651; 5. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), +0:14.952; 6. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), +0:32.926; 7. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Honda), +0:35.421; 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Suzuki), +0:37.532; 9. Tommy Searle (GBR, KTM), +0:42.624; 10. Nathan Watson (GBR, Husqvarna), +0:47.118

MXGP Race 2 Top Ten: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), 35:24.379; 2. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:05.230; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), +0:07.968; 4. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), +0:10.308; 5. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +0:15.326; 6. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), +0:21.997; 7. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Honda), +0:31.230; 8. Tyla Rattray (RSA, Kawasaki), +0:34.031; 9. Davide Guarneri (ITA, TM), +0:36.966; 10. Nathan Watson (GBR, Husqvarna), +0:44.246

MXGP Overall Top Ten: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, YAM), 50 points; 2. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 44 p.; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, SUZ), 40 p.; 4. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, SUZ), 34 p.; 5. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 34 p.; 6. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), 30 p.; 7. Gautier Paulin (FRA, HON), 28 p.; 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, SUZ), 23 p.; 9. Tyla Rattray (RSA, KAW), 22 p.; 10. Nathan Watson (GBR, HUS), 22 p.

MXGP Championship Top Ten: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, YAM), 507 points; 2. Gautier Paulin (FRA, HON), 419 p.; 3. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 416 p.; 4. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 389 p.; 5. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HUS), 360 p.; 6. Clement Desalle (BEL, SUZ), 331 p.; 7. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), 306 p.; 8. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 294 p.; 9. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, SUZ), 266 p.; 10. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, SUZ), 257 p.

MXGP Manufacturer: 1. Yamaha, 515 points; 2. Suzuki, 514 p.; 3. KTM, 497 p.; 4. Husqvarna, 489 p.; 5. Honda, 485 p.; 6. Kawasaki, 311 p.; 7. TM, 89 p.

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. “I didn’t expect to be on the podium this weekend because it is hard pack and a lot of guys are fast on the hard tracks, but I put in a lot of work in the winter with Stefan Everts and it’s paying off,” Jonass said in the post race interview.

Last year’s MX2 grand prix of the Czech Republic winner was Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jordi Tixier. Tixier was fast yesterday; he set the fastest time in timed practice but required stitches after a crash in the qualifying race. Despite the hurt, Tixier handled it like a pro and landed on the third step of the podium.

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.

In other news, 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.

MX2 Race 1 Top Ten: 1. Max Anstie (GBR, Kawasaki), 35:30.895; 2. Valentin Guillod (SUI, Yamaha), +0:02.493; 3. Jordi Tixier (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:04.887; 4. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +0:14.885; 5. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:19.002; 6. Petar Petrov (BUL, Kawasaki), +0:25.674; 7. Julien Lieber (BEL, Yamaha), +0:27.789; 8. Roberts Justs (LAT, KTM), +0:39.944; 9. Brent Van doninck (BEL, Yamaha), +0:41.393; 10. Ivo Monticelli (ITA, KTM), +0:45.660.

MX2 Race 2 Top Ten: 1. Valentin Guillod (SUI, Yamaha), 33:51.527; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:06.630; 3. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +0:17.841; 4. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:19.020; 5. Jordi Tixier (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:21.207; 6. Petar Petrov (BUL, Kawasaki), +0:22.043; 7. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), +0:22.646; 8. Julien Lieber (BEL, Yamaha), +0:25.050; 9. Brent Van doninck (BEL, Yamaha), +0:28.311; 10. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), +0:45.160.

MX2 Overall Top Ten: 1. Valentin Guillod (SUI, YAM), 47 points; 2. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 38 p.; 3. Jordi Tixier (FRA, KAW), 36 p.; 4. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 34 p.; 5. Petar Petrov (BUL, KAW), 30 p.; 6. Julien Lieber (BEL, YAM), 27 p.; 7. Max Anstie (GBR, KAW), 25 p.; 8. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), 24 p.; 9. Brent Van doninck (BEL, YAM), 24 p.; 10. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 22 p.

MX2 Championship Top Ten: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 423 points; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 399 p.; 3. Valentin Guillod (SUI, YAM), 399 p.; 4. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 389 p.; 5. Jordi Tixier (FRA, KAW), 370 p.; 6. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), 369 p.; 7. Max Anstie (GBR, KAW), 337 p.; 8. Julien Lieber (BEL, YAM), 305 p.; 9. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, HUS), 256 p.; 10. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 236 p.

MX2 Manufacturers: 1. KTM, 569 points; 2. Kawasaki, 533 p.; 3. Yamaha, 460 p.; 4. Honda, 440 p.; 5. Suzuki, 369 p.; 6. Husqvarna, 314 p.; 7. TM, 61 p.

Click here to obtain the complete results.

All the photos of the MXGP of Czech Republic will be available here

MXGP CZECH REPUBLIC  – QUICK FACTS

Circuit length: 1586 m

Type of ground: Hard Pack

Temperature: 26°C

Weather conditions: sunny

Crowd Attendance: 24,000

MXGP is available across the board in high definition and is also globally available to view live and in HD on MXGP-TV.com. Click here for the complete list of countries and cooperating MXGP broadcasting networks.

LINKS

Youthstream

FIM

MXGP of Czech Republic

LOKET (Czech Republic), 26 July 2015 – Throttle control was tested today as the 300cc two stroke racers went to war on the hilly, stoney and super slick track of Loket for the fifth round of the European Championship EMX300 series.

There was no surprise whatsoever when Marco Maddii pulled yet another holeshot. Initially the Italian pulled a slight gap, but was eventually reeled in by yesterday’s race winner GL12 Yamaha Racing’s Brad Anderson. Anderson, a wildcard rider from Great Britain, was head and shoulders above the competition this weekend and smoked everyone in both races for the EMX300 round of Czech Republic overall. “I came out here as a one off thanks to Bob Buchanan and GL12 Yamaha Racing. I really enjoyed it, the track was really good and technical. I didn’t get the greatest starts but I came through the pack and put the British flag on top.” Anderson said.

With the championship in mind Maddii sat back for a comfortable second ahead of the local lad Petr Bartos, who was also running a fantastic pace yesterday but binned it big time at the bottom of the circuit when he hit a kicker and went over the ‘bars. South African Damon Strydom rode smooth and solid for fourth while Switzerland’s Nicolas Bender rounded out the top five.

All in all, it was a flawless weekend for GL12 Yamaha Racing’s Brad Anderson who topped the box on his EMX300 debut. Last years runner-up Marco Maddii was third behind England’s Matt Moffat in the first race but wrapped up second place today for second overall. Meanwhile Moffat managed to bounce back from a gnarly crash on lap two today which left him with a chewed up arm, for seventh and third overall.

With the championship red plate holder Wilvo Nestaan Husqvarna Racing’s Yentel Martens out for the season with a broken scaphoid, Marco Maddii has taken over the lead. Martens still holds onto second, two points clear of Matt Moffat in third.

EMX300 Race 1 Top Ten: 1. Brad Anderson (GBR, Yamaha), 30:11.268; 2. Matthew Moffat (GBR, Husqvarna), +0:04.319; 3. Marco Maddii (ITA, KTM), +0:05.141; 4. Dietger Damiaens (BEL, KTM), +0:26.225; 5. Damon Strydom (GBR, KTM), +0:26.603; 6. Nicolas Bender (SUI, Yamaha), +0:27.034; 7. Manuel Beconcini (ITA, KTM), +0:46.271; 8. Dušan Drdaj (CZE, Yamaha), +0:58.665; 9. Miguel Gaboleiro (POR, Yamaha), +1:19.391; 10. Ramon Brucart Sanchez (ESP, Yamaha), +1:21.988.

EMX300 Race 2 Top Ten: 1. Brad Anderson (GBR, Yamaha), 28:58.753; 2. Marco Maddii (ITA, KTM), +0:04.729; 3. Petr Bartos (CZE, KTM), +0:37.820; 4. Damon Strydom (GBR, KTM), +0:42.961; 5. Nicolas Bender (SUI, Yamaha), +0:44.641; 6. Dušan Drdaj (CZE, Yamaha), +0:47.208; 7. Matthew Moffat (GBR, Husqvarna), +0:50.237; 8. Joey Smet (BEL, KTM), +1:16.518; 9. Ramon Brucart Sanchez (ESP, Yamaha), +1:27.065; 10. Mikael Kaipanen (FIN, KTM), +1:28.892.

EMX300 Overall Top Ten: 1. Brad Anderson (GBR, YAM), 50 points; 2. Marco Maddii (ITA, KTM), 42 p.; 3. Matthew Moffat (GBR, HUS), 36 p.; 4. Damon Strydom (GBR, KTM), 34 p.; 5. Nicolas Bender (SUI, YAM), 31 p.; 6. Dušan Drdaj (CZE, YAM), 28 p.; 7. Dietger Damiaens (BEL, KTM), 26 p.; 8. Ramon Brucart Sanchez (ESP, YAM), 23 p.; 9. Joey Smet (BEL, KTM), 21 p.; 10. Petr Bartos (CZE, KTM), 20 p.

EMX300 Championship Top Ten: 1. Marco Maddii (ITA, KTM), 201 points; 2. Yentel Martens (BEL, HUS), 164 p.; 3. Matthew Moffat (GBR, HUS), 162 p.; 4. Damon Strydom (GBR, KTM), 151 p.; 5. Dietger Damiaens (BEL, KTM), 148 p.; 6. Joey Smet (BEL, KTM), 92 p.; 7. Lewis Gregory (GBR, YAM), 86 p.; 8. Nicolas Bender (SUI, YAM), 78 p.; 9. Mikael Kaipanen (FIN, KTM), 76 p.; 10. Patrick Vos (NED, KTM), 76 p.

EMX300 Manufacturers: 1. Husqvarna, 222 points; 2. KTM, 214 p.; 3. Yamaha, 207 p.; 4. TM, 48 p.; 5. Kawasaki, 37 p.; 6. Honda, 32 p.; 7. Aprilia, 24 p.; 8. Suzuki, 12 p.

Click here to obtain the complete results.

All the photos of the MXGP of Czech Republic will be available here

MXGP CZECH REPUBLIC  – QUICK FACTS

Circuit length: 1586 m

Type of ground: Hard Pack

Temperature: 15°C

Weather conditions: sunny

MXGP is available across the board in high definition and is also globally available to view live and in HD on MXGP-TV.com. Click here for the complete list of countries and cooperating MXGP broadcasting networks.

LINKS

Youthstream

FIM Europe

MXGP of Czech Republic

LOKET (Czech Republic), 25 July 2015 – Overnight storms made for better than expected conditions today at the hilly clay track of Loket. The angry wind that howled in and around the venue was ridiculously strong, as were the performances of Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Romain Febvre & Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki’s Max Anstie who blew away their competition to start tomorrow on pole here at the thirteenth round of the FIM Motocross World Championship.

Meanwhile Holland’s Nancy Van De Ven has got off to an amazing start here at the sixth and final round of the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship after winning race one ahead of the main title contenders Team One One Four’s Livia Lancelot and Yamaha MXFontaracing’s Kiara Fontanesi, who both made mistakes on the opening lap. Lancelot will have a four-point advantage heading into the final race tomorrow.

In the European Championship EMX300, GL12 Yamaha Racing’s wildcard Brad Anderson carved his way from outside the top five for the win ahead of fellow Brit Matt Moffat and the championship leader Marco Maddii.

Another super slick and edgy hard pack track was once again Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Romain Febvre’s paradise as he dominated the MXGP qualifying heat for his second pole position of the season.

When the gates dropped it was Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MXGP’s Clement Desalle who got the jump but slid into the first turn, lost his balance and handed the holeshot to the previous MXGP round winner Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe’s Glenn Coldenhoff. Coldenhoff was looking exceptionally comfortable out here considering he is known for his sand ability. The Dutchman lost the lead to Febvre on the opening lap when he left the door open at the bottom of the circuit and then was dropped back to third after Team HRC’s Gautier Paulin set him up a couple of turns after pit lane.

Paulin rode strong and steady for a comfortable second place while Coldenhoff managed to hold on for third. Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM’s Shaun Simpson pulled off some great passes today with his moves on the factory riders, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Tommy Searle and Desalle. Searle rounded out the top five while a rusty Desalle was dropped back to seventh after his blistering fast countryman Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Jeremy Van Horebeek fought his way from the back of the pack to sixth.

MXGP Qualifying Race Top Ten: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), 23:42.613; 2. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Honda), +0:11.060; 3. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Suzuki), +0:18.860; 4. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), +0:21.415; 5. Tommy Searle (GBR, KTM), +0:22.695; 6. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +0:23.779; 7. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), +0:25.156; 8. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:27.871; 9. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), +0:29.837; 10. Todd Waters (AUS, Husqvarna), +0:31.278.

Loket was the scene of one of the most eventful MX2 qualifying races of the season. HSF Logistics Motosport Team’s Roberts Justs timed the gate perfectly and was half a bike length out before he popped a wheelie which slowed him down enough to let Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s young rookie Davy Pootjes take the holeshot.

Pootjes led the way past pit lane on the first lap before being passed by another surprise front-runner TM Racing Factory Team’s Samuele Bernardini. Bernardini, being Italian, obviously loves the hard and slick surfaces and pulled a gap right away. While the TM rider put in one of his best performances, he didn’t have anything on the speed of Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki’s Max Anstie who is absolutely hauling at the moment.

Anstie took the lead on lap three and stamped his authority on the MX2 class for the fourth consecutive time. Meanwhile, Standing Construct Yamaha Yamalube’s Valentin Guillod mentioned he was happy to be back on the hard packed surface and it showed as the super stylish Swiss rider carved his way from outside the top fifteen, up to sixth, then crashed and still managed to bounce back for second.

Rounding out the top three was Kemea Yamaha Yamalube’s Benoit Paturel who is constantly on the improve and landed his best qualifying race finish of the season. Meanwhile, there was no room to breathe in the battle for fourth as three of the quickest riders in MX2, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pauls Jonass, Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe’s Jeremy Seewer and Honda Gariboldi’s Tim Gajser went bar to bar.

All three riders were cutting the same lap times which left them using mistakes as opportunities to pass. Fortunately Jonass was able to minimize his errors in the closing stages of the race and managed to hold on to fourth ahead of Seewer and Gajser.

In darker news, bad luck has struck the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team and Jeffrey Herlings once again. The Bullet was landed on by another rider after he clipped a bank and crashed. He was ambulanced away with a suspected dislocated hip.

MX2 Qualifying Race Top Ten: 1. Max Anstie (GBR, Kawasaki), 24:08.359; 2. Valentin Guillod (SUI, Yamaha), +0:06.265; 3. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:10.783; 4. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +0:12.645; 5. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), +0:15.696; 6. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:16.531; 7. Samuele Bernardini (ITA, TM), +0:17.981; 8. Petar Petrov (BUL, Kawasaki), +0:18.606; 9. Roberts Justs (LAT, KTM), +0:19.584; 10. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), +0:19.983

Click here to obtain the complete results.

All the photos of the MXGP of Czech Republic will be available here

MXGP CZECH REPUBLIC  – QUICK FACTS

Circuit length: 1586 m

Type of ground: Hard Pack

Temperature: 25°C

Weather conditions: sunny

TIMETABLE

Sunday: EMX300 Warm-up 07:50; EMX150 Warm-up 08:05; WMX Warm-up 08:20; EMX300 Race 2 09:00; EMX150 Race 2 09:45; WMX Race 2 10:30; MX2 Warm up 11:10; MXGP Warm up 11:30; MX2 Race 1 13:15; MXGP Race 1 14:15; MX2 Race 2 16:10; MXGP Race 2 17:10.

LINKS

Youthstream

FIM

MXGP of Czech Republic

Jeremy Van Horebeek won his first ever MXGP overall here in Loket, we caught up with him: 

Paul Malin & On Track Off Road's Adam Wheeler chat to Vsevolod Brylyakov, Steven Frossard and Jacky Martens here in the Czech Republic.

The first GoPro lap of Loket, MXGP of Czech Republic with Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing's Nathan Watson.