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Podium and third in the MXGP standings for Romain Febvre
Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP's Romain Febvre advanced to third in the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship series standings with his second podium of the season, his first since Round 1 in Argentina, at his home GP in Lacapelle-Marival.
The defending champion indicated he had the speed with the fastest time in morning warm-up, and he had his wheel in front out of the start in the first moto, but he was not far enough clear from gate five to cut across to the apex of the first turn and was pushed wide to emerge 10th. He advanced quickly to eighth before falling in a long sweeping left-hander two laps later. He was soon back in the Top 10 and at half-distance made a decisive pass for eighth. The next rider was 10 seconds further up the track, but the Kawasaki ace continued to push and swept past for seventh, five laps from the finish. Fifth through the first few turns of the second moto, he made a clean pass for fourth on Lap 3, and five laps later, he set the fastest lap of the race. He secured third after a monumental duel. Urged on by the home crowd, he maintained the same lap times as the leaders for several laps, but as it became clear that it would not be possible to pull back the 10-second advantage they had built as the Frenchman advanced through traffic, he settled for third in the moto and overall through the final laps. His 40-point weekend haul has lifted the Kawasaki leader to third in the series standings.
"I wasn't expecting a podium after that first race; I used a lot of energy for that seventh after the crash. I had to fight hard again in Race 2 for third, so I'm so happy to make it to the podium for the French fans."
- Romain Febvre
KRT teammate Pauls Jonass looked comfortable in eighth for half of the first moto, but he lost his flow during the second half of the moto to be pushed back temporarily to 13th before regrouping decisively on the final lap, dropping his lap time by two seconds to regain 12th. A horrific accident at the start of Race 2, when another rider crashed in his path as they sped full-gas towards Turn 2, left the Latvian to pick himself up and battle from dead last, but he dug deep to put in one of his best rides of the season, maintaining Top 6 lap times to the finish to narrowly miss a Top 10 finish by just half a second. He remains 11th in the points standings.
"It was a difficult day. I didn't get the best jump in the first race, but I came good through the first couple of turns to be eighth; then I got arm pump already on the second lap, so it was difficult to hold on after that. We switched to a hardpack tire for Race 2, but [Jan] Pancar crashed right in front of me coming out of Turn 1, and I hit his bike. I hit my ribs and was struggling to breathe for a couple of laps, but I kept pushing with good lap times and got to 11th, not far from eighth, at the finish. It was a decent ride, but the result was not what we were looking for."
- Pauls Jonass
