Febvre leads Yamaha sweep of the Grand Prix of Czech Republic

[totalmotorcycle]

@Febvre leads @Yamaha sweep of the Grand Prix of #Czech Republic


Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube's Romain Febvre is now the most successful rider so far in the 2015 FIM Motocross World Championship. The 23 year old rookie in the premier MXGP class won both motos at Loket for the Grand Prix of Czech Republic today for his fifth overall victory from the thirteen rounds of eighteen so far. The Frenchman has claimed the most moto chequered flags (nine, and at least one for the last seven GPs in a row), led the most laps, and earned the most podiums. The YZ450FM racer celebrated his second 1-1 of the year today and extended his lead in the championship standings. To complete a great meeting for Yamaha Febvre was just one of the winners as the manufacturer also toasted spoils in MX2, WMX and EMX300.

Loket may have remodelled their layout to include a new jump and corner section and moved the start gate back to the original position but the course was still stony and slippery and tested the full range of a rider's feel for traction and grip. The technical edge was increased by the hard-pack around what is otherwise a flowing and relatively easy racing course.

Watched by 24,000 spectators Febvre set-off from his second Pole Position of the season won through Saturday's Qualification Heat. He settled into second place behind Evgeny Bobryshev and bided his time until the Russian slightly dropped his pace before taking control on lap six. From there Romain built a comfortable advantage to seize his eighth moto triumph.

In the second race Febvre had to work a bit harder and found some resistance to his designs on victory from Clement Desalle. The duo swapped positions briefly and enjoyed an intense scrap before '461' was able to make the break on lap seven of nineteen. Bobryshev was also part of the leading trio.

Jeremy Van Horebeek finished fifth in the final Grand Prix listing. '89' made a reasonable getaway in the first moto and quickly found himself in fifth position and chasing Clement Desalle. The two Belgians circulated together for the entire race with the gap between them growing and shrinking at various stages. When Gautier Paulin crashed JVH bumped up to fourth. In the second outing Van Horebeek was not able to exit the gate with the leaders and had to push hard to recover from twelfth until fifth, again with Kevin Strijbos for company.

DP19 Yamaha Racing's David Philippaerts was fighting hard for a top ten slot in the first moto until a crash on the penultimate lap meant that the Italian needed to have six stitches inserted into a cut on his right arm. He did not take to the line for the second moto as he also knocked his head and was genuinely roughed-up by the fall.

With World Champion Tony Cairoli choosing not to enter the Grand Prix at Loket and also opting out of the next fixture to fix a fractured arm, the MXGP standings make even better reading for Febvre with an 88 point gap over Gautier Paulin. Van Horebeek's form has also added numerical weight and he has 294 points and eighth position. Philippaerts rests with thirteenth.

Round fourteen of MXGP follows hard after Loket with the Grand Prix of Belgium entering the daunting sand of Lommel next weekend.



Romain Febvre

1st and 1st for 1st overall. Championship Position: 1st

"It was a really good weekend for me. I knew I had the speed to win the GP from Saturday and the goal was to make good starts. In the first moto I had a sketchy moment together with Jeremy but passed Evgeny quite soon and it was an easier race than the second. We had a nice battle with Clement and he was really strong. Evgeny came back as well and I could not rest even for a little bit; I had to push all the moto. I'm really happy and I'm excited about what we are doing but there is still a long way to go."






Jeremy van Horebeek

4th and 5th for 5th overall. Championship Position: 8th

"I'm a bit frustrated. I rode with good speed all weekend long. I had a pretty good start yesterday and today they were a bit less. I tried to pass Clement everywhere but it was impossible! Then in the second moto I had a disastrous start and worked my way to fifth. It was good in a way but if you start second then you can do race-winning speed easily. We used a new set-up this weekend to look for improvement in the starts and it is never easy to test like that at the GPs and we didn't have enough time during the week. Anyway, now we know more and I hope for Lommel we can do some good results."




2015 MXGP Czech Republic

Loket 26/07/2015

race I
1 Romain Febvre
Yamaha
FRA 35'06.583
2 Evgeny Bobryshev Honda RUS 0'09.363
3 Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 0'12.260
4 Jeremy Van Horebeek
Yamaha
BEL 0'13.651
5 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 0'14.952
6 Shaun Simpson KTM GBR 0'32.926
7 Gautier Paulin Honda FRA 0'35.421
8 Glenn Coldenhoff Suzuki NLD 0'37.532
9 Tommy Searle KTM GBR 0'42.624
10 Nathan Watson Husqvarna GBR 0'47.118
11 Christophe Charlier Honda FRA 1'04.135
12 Tyla Rattray Kawasaki ZAF 1'12.223
13 Dennis Ullrich Suzuki DE 1'23.704
14 Jose Antonio Butron KTM ESP 1'15.934
15 Filip Bengtsson Honda SWE 1'21.920
race II
1 Romain Febvre
Yamaha
FRA 35'24.379
2 Evgeny Bobryshev Honda RUS 0'05.230
3 Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 0'07.968
4 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 0'10.308
5 Jeremy Van Horebeek
Yamaha
BEL 0'15.326
6 Shaun Simpson KTM GBR 0'21.997
7 Gautier Paulin Honda FRA 0'31.230
8 Tyla Rattray Kawasaki ZAF 0'34.031
9 Davide Guarneri TM ITA 0'36.966
10 Nathan Watson Husqvarna GBR 0'44.246
11 Glenn Coldenhoff Suzuki NLD 1'03.984
12 Christophe Charlier Honda FRA 1'06.981
13 Todd Waters Husqvarna AUS 1'15.143
14 Jose Antonio Butron KTM ESP 1'37.204
15 Angus Heidecke KTM DE 1'41.488

Best Lap

Romain Febvre
Yamaha
FRA 1'48.659


MXGP World Standing

Rider Standings After Race 13 of 19

1. Romain Febvre
Yamaha
FRA 507
2. Gautier Paulin Honda FRA 419
3. Antonio Cairoli KTM ITA 416
4. Evgeny Bobryshev Honda RUS 389
5. Maximilian Nagl Husqvarna DE 360
6. Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 331
7. Shaun Simpson KTM GBR 306
8. Jeremy Van Horebeek
Yamaha
BEL 294
9. Glenn Coldenhoff Suzuki NLD 266
10. Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 257
11. Todd Waters Husqvarna AUS 250
12. Dean Ferris Husqvarna AUS 189
13. David Philippaerts
Yamaha
ITA 185
14. Tyla Rattray Kawasaki ZAF 181
15. Ken De Dycker KTM BEL 155
16. Christophe Charlier Honda FRA 147
31. Cedric Soubeyras Yamaha FRA 15
39. Matevz Irt Yamaha SVN 9
40. Paul Coates Yamaha GBR 7
41. Pier Bertuzzo Yamaha ITA 6
44. Jeffrey DeWulf Yamaha BEL 3
51. Lewis Gregory Yamaha GBR 0



Circuit Length:
1630
Weather:
Dry
Lap Record:
1'48.659
(Romain Febvre, 26-7-2015)
Last Years Winner:
Jeremy Van Horebeek