Frenchman Romain Febvre returned to the podium just one week after his return from injury with third overall in the toughest round of the entire FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship series.
The Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP team rider got bumped by another rider entering turn one at the start of the first moto at the famous and notorious Belgian sand track at Lommel, but he immediately found his rhythm to move from outside the top-10 to sixth on the opening lap as all of the big guns made their way to the front.
Two further passes saw him fourth by lap five and there ensued a dramatic duel with the series points-leader until the Kawasaki rider, despite his recent lack of racing and the heat, proved the stronger of the duo during the second-half of the moto around the brutal track, where lap times were ten seconds slower than the previous day.
A much better start in race two saw Febvre move past his Swiss team-mate Jeremy Seewer for second within a few corners but a simple fall at the start of lap two put him back to fourth.
He homed back in stylishly on the points-leader again during the second-half of the race, eventually moving past and clear ten minutes from the finish to secure third in the moto and, more significantly, return to the overall podium in only his second race back since injury. His injury absence from four GPs leaves him seventh in the points standings.
Romain Febvre: “Just before I got injured we had made some changes to the settings on the bike for the hardpack, but we had no chance to test them in sand until this week and I just couldn’t find my flow (during qualifying race) on Saturday, so we made the conscious decision to return to our settings from the start of the season for today and it worked well.
“I got punched in the first turn in race one and had to come from far back for fourth, then in the second race I got a really good start but crashed just after the finish line on the second lap.
“I thought it would be tough after that but I immediately found the flow again and wasn’t exhausted; even Jorge was not far away.
“I’m really happy to be back on the box after five weeks out; I did everything I could except riding whilst I was out injured, but when you jump back on the bike it is so physically demanding just to find the flow. And it is so much easier when you are not fighting the bike because you don’t land in all of the holes.”
Team-mate Seewer underlined his lightening reactions at the gate and the outstanding power delivery of the KX450-SR as he exploded from gate-ten to exit turn one second in both motos.
In the first race he was soon pushed back to fourth by the absolute sand-experts but then settled into a solid pace for several laps before gradually losing positions in the second-half to finish tenth.
The Swiss national again stormed through the first turn second in race two but was quickly demoted to fifth.
He surrendered the placing for a few laps mid-moto before coming back decisively to finish fifth in moto and eighth overall. He retains fifth in the points-standings.
Photo courtesy Kawasaki
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2024 STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 14:
MXGP – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 705 points; 2. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 681 p.; 3. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 667 p.; 4. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 507 p.; 5. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 479 p.; 6. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 419 p.; 7. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 405 p.; 8. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 317 p.; 9. Pauls Jonass (LAT, HON), 274 p.; 10. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 273 p.
MX2 – World Championship Classification:
1. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 683 points; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 618 p.; 3. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 606 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 556 p.; 5. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 465 p.; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 457 p.; 7. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 429 p.; 8. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 391 p.; 9. Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), 255 p.; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 254 p.