French podium for Gajser as the MXGP Championship heats up
Lacapelle-MarivalRecognised as one of the most beautiful villages in France, situated in the south-west region of the country, Lacapelle-Marival hosted Round 12 of the FIM World Motocross Championship this weekend.
Presenting a new set of challenges for the world’s best motocross riders the Circuit Georges Filhol features tight, twisty, rutted and hard-packed terrain; in stark contrast to many circuits on the 2021 MXGP calendar.
Team HRC’s series leader Tim Gajser started race one in ninth place, but a small tip-over on lap three demoted the Slovenia to 10th as he set-about a charge back to sixth by lap 14. Tim struggled to make further progress on the tight French circuit and finished the race in sixth with high-hopes for race two.
In race two Gajser started better in fifth place. He soon pushed up into fourth position and remained there for the majority of the race, once again finding it hard to push up to the leaders. The four-time World Champion eventually found his way into third place in the latter stages of the race giving him third overall with 35 points.
In the MX2 class Honda 114 Motorsport’s Ruben Fernandez returned to racing after injuring his shoulder in Sardinia three weeks ago. The Spaniard qualified in 10th position ahead of Honda Racing Assomotor’s Stephen Rubini in 15th.
MX2 race one saw Rubini battle hard in 10th place throughout the moto, slowly regaining form after injury setbacks this year. Also riding the CRF250R, Ruben Fernandez started the race well, entering lap one in eighth place, but an incident on lap two put him out of the race.
Race two saw Fernandez battle hard throughout the moto to eventually come home in 10th place after a crash on lap two, which demoted him to 13th. Local hero Stephen Rubini had a tougher race in his second outing, starting the race in 10th spot, but dropping to 13th at the finish after struggling to find a flow on the challenging and tight circuit.
Saturday’s EMX250 races saw Honda Racing Assomotor’s Emil Weckman improve on last weekend’s 15th overall as he took his CRF250R to 10th overall with an excellent 5th in race one, followed by 11th in race two after making some small mistakes which cost him a better overall finish.
It was a bit of a frustrating day here despite ending up on the podium.
I knew coming in that starts would be crucial because the track is so tight and narrow in a lot of places and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get out of the gate well enough in either moto.In the first race I was around 10th place early on and it was just really difficult to make any passes. It was hard to find a good rhythm but eventually I worked my way through to sixth which was all I could manage.In race two my start was a bit better but I couldn’t latch onto the top two and battle with them so once I got into third I was too far behind to catch them. Still there are a lot races to come and I will now focus on next weekend when we head to Spain.
It was so nice to race in-front of my home fans today. I could hear them cheering me on and waving the French flags. It was crazy.My day started really well with second in Free Practice, but in Timed Qualifying the riders’ timings we’re all really close, so I couldn’t get a better place than 15th which meant that I didn’t have the best start-gate choice.My top-ten starts today were good though and in race one I managed to defend my position well. Then in race two I struggled to improve my track speed. I got some arm-pump at one point and found it hard to find my flow on the track and find good lines. I felt a little bit lost, but eventually I found a good pace but it was too late.I like next weekend’s track in Spain, so I’m looking forward to an even better overall result at the next GP.
The MXGP class was difficult today for Honda riders.The track was very challenging and left a lot of emphasis on good starts and good early laps of the races. Our riders didn’t have the best starts and this resulted in big challenges to improve on their first turn positions.Henry Jacobi had a double-disaster with his starts and Tim Gajser gave himself a lot of work to do in the races by not getting away with the leaders. Unfortunately, this meant that Tim had to salvage points in both races to try and do the best he could. His efforts were rewarded with a podium result which was good to see.We now look forward to next weekend to make amends and continue to be positive considering today’s challenges.In the MX2 class Stephen Rubini was joined with good results by Ruben Fernandez who was returning from a recent shoulder injury.In race one Ruben had a mechanical problem that denied him and better overall result. In race two he finished in 10th place after a small error cost him a few positions, but I think in general he performed well. It’s his home GP next weekend in Spain where he should feel most comfortable.Stephen Rubini displayed that he is capable for running inside the top ten, scoring decent results amongst decent riders at his home GP in France.In the EMX250 class it was a welcome return to form for Emil Weckman with fifth place in Timed Qualifying and also fifth in race one.In race two he suffered a little bit with fatigue from riding quite tightly but overall today was a good result for Emil and we look to build on his form going into the last four EMX250 races in Italy starting at the end of October.
