A SPLENDID RECOVERY BY CLEMENT DESALLE IN GERMANY

Courtesy of Kawasaki

Clement Desalle of the Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team maintained third place in the FIM MXGP World Motocross Championship series with a hard-fought fourth place at Teutschenthal in Germany.

Unfortunate incidents during qualification had left Clement with only twenty-first choice of start gate in the two points-scoring races but, calling on his iron resolve and the power of the Kawasaki KX450F-SR, the twenty-nine year old Belgian stormed to top six starts in each moto and fought two dramatic race-long battles with the defending world champion, defying his every move to finish fifth in the first moto and fourth in the second to secure fourth overall in the GP. The result has confirmed his third place in the championship standings after eight rounds of the twenty GP series.

"Yesterday I had a bad qualifying race as I crashed in the second corner, and then again later in the race to finish only twenty-first," said Desalle. "We know that the position at the gate is really important here, and I must admit that I didn't slept so well last night as I tried to find a solution. Finally, I got two good starts to finish the races fifth and fourth. It was a similar scenario in both races; I was between sixth and seventh in the first few corners and pushed straight away to advance to fifth and fourth in the races, defending my position in each race against Cairoli. It was very important to stay on two wheels here."

KRT teammate Julien Lieber also rode an excellent first moto to hold eighth place throughout and looked set to repeat the scoreline in the second race until another rider lost control and cannoned into the young Belgian. Rejoining the race in twenty-fourth position he had recovered to nineteenth by the chequered flag. He retains tenth place in the championship standings.

Alessandro Lupino and Maxime Desprey of Gebben Van Venrooy Kawasaki Racing again showed their speed and consistency to post strong scoreline in each moto. The Italian finished thirteenth and eleventh for eleventh overall in the GP, while the Frenchman completed the races sixteenth and fourteenth. Tommy Searle of Bike It DRT Kawasaki made a tentative return to GP racing after an absence with a broken collarbone and also scored points in both motos.

MX2

Jed Beaton of the F&H Racing Team took his Kawasaki to fifth place in the German round of the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship at Teutschenthal to maintain fifth place in the series standings.

The Australian was initially outside the first ten in the first moto but quickly moved forward to seventh place before another rider jumped across his line and they crashed together. Rejoining the race thirteenth Jed pushed to the very end, finally crossing the finish line seventh with his final pass on the very last lap. A better start in race two saw him in eighth position on the opening lap and he quickly moved to sixth in a tight leaderboard tussle. At one stage he was very close to the rider who eventually finished third, but the exertions of his first moto recovery eventually took its toll and he settled for a safe sixth place rather than take unnecessary risks on a track which had become very rugged by the end of the weekend.

"My starts were not so great this weekend," said Beaton. "I really need to go back home and work on that aspect of my game. Today my riding was good but I had a crash in the first race with another rider; that dropped me a few positions but I could recover back to seventh so I was pretty happy with that. My lap times were good all through the race, so there's a lot of positives about that race. I felt good in the second moto too, but I had used a lot of energy in the first race and I started to make a few mistakes towards the end of the race. But I managed to finish fifth overall from a difficult weekend, so I'm pretty happy with that."

Was this post helpful? Add yours to our service or subscribe to our feed above.