Qualifying counted for little at round two of the Motocross World Championships in Bulgaria overnight.

Defending world MX1 champion Antonio Cairoli (KTM) qualified fastest in the class on Saturday but had no answer to the speed of French Kawasaki riders Christophe Pourcel and Gautier Paulin on race day proper and Cairoli knows he has a fight on his hands to retain the world crown.

Pourcel and Paulin shared race wins in the GP of Bulgaria, while Cairoli managed 4-3 results to maintain his position at the top of the standings, albeit now just nine points clear of Paulin.

Cairoli took the holeshot in the first MX1 race, but could do nothing to hold off the challenge from Pourcel, who snatched the lead on the opening lap.

Belgian Clement Desalle (Suzuki) started in third before losing a position to Paulin. And it was Paulin who wasted no time in clawing his way up the rear wheel of Cairoli, before finding a way through on lap six.

Cairoli would also lose out to Desalle, and though the Italian tried to re-take third in the closing stages, Desalle managed to hold on to the final podium place. Paulin finished in second, while Pourcel won comfortably by more than five seconds. Yamaha’s David Philippaerts was fifth.

In moto two, Paulin led every lap from start to finish as he raced to the overall grand prix victory ahead of Pourcel.

Despite dropping to fifth in the middle of the race, Cairoli found his way back to third, with his KTM team-mate Ken DeDycker (pictured above) just missing out on the final podium step to place fourth.

It was another gritty performance from Russian Honda rider Evgeny Bobryshev as he added a fifth place finish to the eighth in moto one. And Sebastien Pourcel (Kawasaki) showed a return to form with sixth in race two.

Meanwhile, in the MX2 class, Britain’s Tommy Searle (Kawasaki) took the holeshot in the first race ahead of his team-mate Joel Roelants and Harri Kullas (Suzuki).

Championship leader Jeffrey Herlings (KTM) was back in seventh position.

By lap two, Herlings had moved into third place but could not seem to match the pace of the Kawasaki duo Searle and Roelants. A damaged front brake on Searle’s bike allowed Roelants to catch and pass him to take over the lead, which was never relinquished, as the Belgian went on to take his first career MX2 race victory.

Herlings moved into second seven laps from the end pushing Searle back to third. Jeremy Van Horebeek and Harri Kullas rounded out the top five.

In moto two, Searle repeated his hole shot of moto one while Herlings who initially started around sixth place was soon into second. Britain’s Jake Nicholls fell from third on the second lap handing the position to Van Horebeek. Fourth position was occupied for a long time by Max Anstie (Honda), but he was eventually overhauled by race one winner  Roelants at the second time of asking.

Despite his late charge, Herlings could quite get close enough to Searle and he held on to take the victory, and secure his and Kawasaki’s first Grand Prix victory of the season. Herlings was second, Roelants was third.

Results, Grand Prix of Bulgaria

MX1 moto one: 1. Pourcel, 2. Paulin, 3. Desalle, 4. Cairoli, 5. Philippaerts, 6. Boog, 7. De Dycker, 8. Bobryshev, 9. Goncalves, 10. Aranda, 11. Simpson, 12. Strijbos, 13. Soubeyras, 14. Leok, 15. Pourcel

MX1 moto two: 1. Paulin, 2. Pourcel, 3. Cairoli, 4. De Dycker, 5. Bobryshev, 6. Pourcel, 7. Boog,8.  Leok, 9. Simspon, 10. Strijbos, 11. Guarneri, 12. Barragan, 13. Philippaerts, 14. Soubeyras, 15 Ferris

MX1 overall: 1. Paulin, Gautier 47pts 2. Pourcel, Christophe 47pts 3. Cairoli, Antonio 38pts 4. de Dycker, Ken 32pts 5. Bobryshev, Evgeny 29pts 6. Boog, Xavier 29pts 7. Philippaerts, David 24pts 8. Desalle, Clement 24pts Simpson, Shaun 22pts 10. Pourcel, Sebastien 21pts

MX1 championship points: 1. Cairoli 88pts, 2. Paulin 79pts, 3. Desalle 67pts, 4. de Dycker 63pts, 5. Pourcel 59pts, 6. Strijbos 51pts, 7. Boog 49pts, 8. Simpson 45pts, 9. Philippaerts 44pts, 10. Leok 42pts

MX2 moto one: 1. Roelants, 2. Herlings, 3. Searle, 4. Van Horebeek, 5. Kullas, 6. Anstie, 7. Nicholls, 8. Ferrandis, 9. Tixier, 10. Leib, 11. Tonkov, 12. Petrov, 13. Butron, 14. Lupino, 15. Larsen

MX2 moto two: 1. Searle, 2. Herlings, 3 Van Horebeek, 4. Roelants, 5. Anstie, 6. Lupino, 7. Butron, 8. Tonkov, 9. Kullas, 10. Ferrandis, 11. Leib, 12. Nicholls, 13. Petrov, 14. Tixier, 15. Pocock

MX2 overall: 1. Searle, Tommy 45pts 2. Herlings, Jeffrey 44pts 3. Roelants, Joel 43pts 4.  van Horebeek, Jeremy 38pts 5. Anstie, Max 31pts 6. Kullas, Harri 28pts 7. Ferrandis, Dylan 24pts 8. Tonkov, Alexander 23pts 9. Nicholls, Jake 23pts 10. Lupino, Alessandro  22pts

MX2 championship points: 1. Herlings 94pts, 2. Searle 87pts, 3. Roelants 85pts, 4. Van Horebeek 74pts, 5. Anstie 57pts, 6. Nicholls 51pts, 7. Tixier 48pts, 8. Ferrandis 48pts, 9. Kullas 43pts, 10. Lupino 38pts

Photo by Bavo