Team Suzuki Press Office – August 13.
Kevin Strijbos – 14-13 for 14th
Arminas Jasikonis – 12-34 for 17th
Both Suzuki World MXGP riders had top 10 finishes in mind when they started today’s proceedings at the MXGP of Switzerland, but due to some bad luck and some unfortunate incidents, Kevin Strijbos and Arminas Jasikonis came up just short on their expectations. Jasikonis actually posted the second fastest lap of the first moto but due to the tricky nature of the Frauenfeld track, it wasn’t enough to propel him inside the top 10. Then in the second moto, there was a nasty collision between Arnaud Tonus and Jasikonis, after the Swiss rider crashed on the landing of a blind jump, with the RM-450WS rider having no chance to avoid the impact.
“It wasn’t a great weekend for me, with one DNF again,” said the young Lithuanian. “The first race start wasn’t too bad but I messed up the second turn and dropped a few places. Then a lap of two later I crashed and it was really hard to pass guys to make up those positions again. With five minutes to go I started to pass some guys and made some fast laps and that’s a good positive from the weekend, to have the second fastest lap on my RM-Z450WS. In the second moto I was around 12th when I hit Tonus as he stood up after a crash. The flag marshal wasn’t there because it happened so fast, so I hit him and crashed myself which bent the bike and meant I had to pull off. I feel sorry for him, it was a complete accident and I hope he’s ok. Now I’m just going to practice some more this week as the rib injury feels better, so we’ll see how it goes as I get ready for Sweden, another new track that I’m really looking forward to.”
After yesterday’s good performance, Strijbos hoped for a little bit better placings, but on what was a scorching Sunday, the Frauenfeld track made passing extremely difficult as the 450 machines were so equally matched. “In the first moto I got a good jump, but I shut off the throttle too quickly around the first turn as I wanted to cut in tight instead of railing around the edge a bit more. It was a mistake on my part but afterwards my riding was ok. It wasn’t bad and it wasn’t very good like yesterday, just ok really. The speed was there with the rest of the field, from sixth to 14th we were in a train, before they started to gap me a little bit at the end. In the second moto I blew the start completely and I was dead last and came back to 13th behind Max Anstie, who came second in race one, but then I spent the whole moto behind him. Again my speed was comparable with guys in the top 10, I just couldn’t make the passes to get there. It’s a shame really that I just couldn’t get those top 10 finishes that I think I could have achieved.”
General Manager Stefan Everts echoed those sentiments in what was a difficult weekend for both his riders. “For Kevin it has been a tough weekend, he showed some good riding skills but his starts weren’t great and that made it tough to move through the field. He just got stuck behind riders a bit too much but he’s getting back to speed after his injury and that’s positive. AJ also had bad starts and made some mistakes but his race speed was good and he could have easily got a top 10 with better starts to the motos. It’s also good that he didn’t complain about his ribs and now hopefully we can work with him in midweek, rather than just going race to race.”
With both riders looking to line-up at the Belgian race in Keiheuval on Tuesday, they should have everything dialled-in for next weekend when the World Motocross Championships returns to Sweden after a one-year absence.
MXGP Moto 1: 1. Arnaud Tonus (SUI, Yamaha), 34:40.671; 2. Max Anstie (GBR, Husqvarna), +0:00.882; 3. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:01.419; 4. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Husqvarna), +0:08.563; 5. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), +0:23.095; 6. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:31.501; 7. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:33.556; 8. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +0:38.368; 9. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:40.735; 10. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:41.371; 11. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, Honda), +0:44.815; 12. Arminas Jasikonis (LTU, Suzuki World MXGP), +0:45.070; 13. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Husqvarna), +0:47.019; 14. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki World MXGP), +0:48.146.
MXGP Moto 2: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 34:26.611; 2. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Husqvarna), +0:04.557; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), +0:07.625; 4. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:11.381; 5. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:23.231; 6. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +0:31.183; 7. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Husqvarna), +0:44.703; 8. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:52.004; 9. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), +0:53.997; 10. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, Honda), +0:55.213; 11. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:58.258; 12. Max Anstie (GBR, Husqvarna), +1:01.150; 13. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki World MXGP), +1:05.585; 34. Arminas Jasikonis (LTU, Suzuki World MXGP), -14 lap(s).
MXGP Overall: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 40 points; 2. Gautier Paulin (FRA, HUS), 40 p.; 3. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 38 p.; 4. Romain Febvre (FRA, YAM), 36 p.; 5. Max Anstie (GBR, HUS), 31 p.; 6. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 30 p.; 7. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 28 p.; 8. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 25 p.; 9. Arnaud Tonus (SUI, YAM), 25 p.; 10. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HUS), 22 p. 14. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki World MXGP), 15 p.; 17. Arminas Jasikonis (LTU, Suzuki World MXGP), 9 p.
MXGP Points Standings: 1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 605 points; 2. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 508 p.; 3. Gautier Paulin (FRA, HUS), 486 p.; 4. Clement Desalle (BEL, KAW), 483 p.; 5. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 406 p.; 6. Romain Febvre (FRA, YAM), 401 p.; 7. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HUS), 358 p.; 8. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 348 p.; 9. Arnaud Tonus (SUI, YAM), 328 p.; 10. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 320 p.; 11. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), 320 p.; 12. Max Anstie (GBR, HUS), 307 p.; 13. Arminas Jasikonis (LTU, SUZ), 260 p.; 14. Tanel Leok (EST, HUS), 167 p.; 15. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, HON), 155 p.; 16. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, SUZ), 141 p.
