main content of page
Racing News |
Romain Febvre secure third in MXGP standings
Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP's Romain Febvre shrugged off a first moto fall in the German round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Teutschenthal to consolidate his current third place in the series standings with a hard-fought fourth in Race 2.
With a full grid of 40 at the start, the current world champion gambled on gate number three in the first moto to enjoy a more sweeping line into Turn 1, but the plan backfired as he didn't get the best drive off the wet metal mesh and could not get across the riders inside him at Turn 1. Getting the power to the ground effectively on the long run to Turn 2, he managed to salvage an initial sixth and was already up to fourth by Lap 4. Ever-deeper ruts had formed after the pre-race storm to make further progress difficult, and a fall as he almost came together with another rival relegated the Frenchman to 17th at the finish. Choosing the inside gate he had earned as pole-setter for Race 2, he cleverly used the inside of the first two turns to emerge fourth from Lap 1 and maintained station until mounting a big push for third after 20 minutes. He was ready to pounce at any moment until he clipped his rival's rear wheel and fell; with two laps remaining he was right back on third, but each effort to pass was frustrated. Despite the disappointment of Race 1 he has further consolidated third in the series standings.
"When I was battling with [Ruben] Fernandez for third in the first moto [Maxime] Renaux got alongside me, and I made a small mistake and fell. My clutch was broken, so it was difficult to start again, and I lost many positions. I was riding strong in the second moto, but I was in the wrong spot at the wrong time when [Andrea] Adamo made a mistake, so he took my front wheel as I was close to passing him. I had a really good pace alone to come back to him again but there was nowhere to pass, so I finished fourth. I'm still third in the championship, but I'm a little disappointed; I could have made up a lot of points today and I didn't. I am really happy for Mathis [Valin]; he was riding strong and did good with 2-1; he really deserved it. I want to apologize to the FIM for some words I said last weekend because it is now clear that they did not have all of the information about what was happening with [Thibault] Benistant. I should not have criticized them, but it was in the heat of the moment after racing and we never want a rider to be injured like this; hopefully this situation will never happen again."
- Romain Febvre
KRT teammate Pauls Jonass raced in the Top 10 throughout the first moto to finish eighth, but his hopes of a good overall result were stifled by a fall at the second turn of Race 2. The Latvian responded well to get back into a points-scoring position within 10 minutes and kept pushing to eventually finish 12th for 11th overall on the day. He is now just two points from the Top 10 in the series standings.
"Eighth in the first moto was OK, but I was not satisfied with my riding. The riding was much better in the second race, but I crashed at the second corner. The team has been working hard, and I need to turn it into results on the track. The most positive thing to come out of this weekend is that I'm excited to be going to Kegums next week; the last two years in a row I crashed here and missed my home GP."
- Pauls Jonass
