Team Suzuki Press Office – December 5.
Charles Lefrancois – 2nd on Friday
Boris Maillard – 3rd on Saturday
Suzuki’s Charles Lefrancois and Boris Maillard raced to podium positions at the weekend’s second round of the ADAC Supercross SX1 series at Chemnitz in Germany aboard their RM-Z machinery.
Lefrancois (Team Twenty Suspension Suzuki) finished second on Friday night with Maillard (stielergruppe.mx Johannes-Bikes Suzuki) third in Saturday’s race.
Lefrancois led the opening SX1 race, holding the position for the first-half of the race until having to relinquish it to American Tyler Bowers.
Said Lefrancois: “Bowers was a bit faster than me today, but second place isn’t too bad and tomorrow is another day!”
The Frenchman qualified without problem for Saturday’s finale, but a poor start prevented him from taking another podium: “Of course I would have liked to have been more up in front, but with fourth place I secured second position in the overall standings, which is a nice success!”
Just in front of Lefrancois, his fellow countryman Maillard crossed the line in third. He said: “I was able to win the start and that‘s half of it in Supercross.”
Tough luck surrounded Florent Richier (stielergruppe.mx Johannes-Bikes Suzuki). The Frenchman took a brilliant start in Friday’s Final after third place in qualifying, but in the newly-introduced ‘Bar2Bar’ race, he crashed-out dramatically and injured his shoulder, which led to his retirement.
Fredrik Noren (Team Castrol Power 1 Suzuki Moto-Base) was able to display his experience following many Supercross races in the USA and was on-target for the podium, but the Swede made a mistake. He said: “I lost a lot of time with that and finally had to settle with eighth place.”
In the mid-term of the three-round ADAC SX-Cup, Maillard is in fourth place after the and has good prospects for the overall win. His countrymen Lefrancois and Thomas Ramette (Team Twenty Suspension Suzuki) are only three-points behind and occupy sixth and seventh positions, but their chances for the win of the SX-Cup are still realistic.
The third and final event of the ADAC SX-Cup 2017/18 calendar will take place on January 12th-14th at the Dortmunder Westfalenhalle Stadium.
