Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre defied a thumb injury to earn pole for his home round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at St Jean d’Angely.
The French rider raced to an overwhelming victory in qualifying at this French GP and the steep and challenging hillside circuit near Bordeaux.
Febvre was in so much pain from a thumb injury after a nasty incident when he came up short on an uphill triple-jump during morning practice that he was restricted to seventeenth-fastest time in timed practice.
He even contemplated withdrawing from the remainder of the day’s programme to protect his thumb but eventually decided to race qualifying after a mid-afternoon storm had made the hillside track extremely slippery and rendered it impossible for anyone to launch over the largest jumps.
Shrugging off the discomfort he launched his KX450-SR second through turn one in a green 1-2 with KRT colleague Jeremy Seewer, from Switzerland, out-manoeuvring his team-mate at turn three and immediately racing clear with the fastest lap of the race to create a near-five-second gap within a single lap.
Extending his advantage to ten seconds at one stage, he eventually crossed the finishing-line six-and-a-half seconds to the good at the end of the twenty-minute-plus-two-lap race and will now have first-choice of start-gate for both GP motos on Sunday (tomorrow morning NZ time).
“Today definitely didn’t start as planned. I injured my thumb this morning and had so much pain in timed practice that my pace was way-off,” said Febvre afterwards.
“I couldn’t jump everything so I could not post a fast lap. I almost pulled out for the rest of today and would only race tomorrow but luckily for me it rained; I knew that the speed would be slower and I had a chance with a good start so I decided to try Qualifying.
“I made a great start, passed into the lead at turn two and could pull away. Hopefully tomorrow will be muddy again; I hope my thumb will have improved, but I still have quite a lot of pain right now.
“It really was a mental victory; I never give up but there are always new challenges which present themselves and even at thirty-two years-of-age I am still discovering new strengths. I really don’t know how I managed it; I’m speechless, but so happy!”
Photo courtesy Kawasaki
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MXGP – Qualifying Race – Classification:
1. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), 24:56.195; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:06.656; 3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Kawasaki), +0:14.755; 4. Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), +0:44.402; 5. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Honda), +0:45.597; 6. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:49.634; 7. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +1:02.116; 8. Brian Bogers (NED, Fantic), +1:05.095; 9. Ben Watson (GBR, Beta), +1:08.094; 10. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +1:16.739
MXGP – World Championship Classification:
1. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 305 points; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 305 p.; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 277 p.; 4. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 247 p.; 5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, HON), 217 p.; 6. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 201 p.; 7. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 196 p.; 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 179 p.; 9. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 121 p.; 10. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 120 p.
MX2 – Qualifying Race – Classification:
1. Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), 25:45.416; 2. Marc-Antoine Rossi (FRA, GASGAS), +0:32.848; 3. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:45.228; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:21.632; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:56.564; 6. Quentin Marc Prugnieres (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:59.726; 7. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +1:13.266; 8. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +1:18.668; 9. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +1:19.013; 10. Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), +1:40.215
MX2 – World Championship Classification:
1. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 300 points; 2. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 252 p.; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 237 p.; 4. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 233 p.; 5. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 226 p.; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 217 p.; 7. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 190 p.; 8. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 185 p.; 9. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 141 p.; 10. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 126 p