A balmy and sun-drenched British Grand Prix at Mallory Park for the seventh round of 15 in the FIM Motocross World Championship has seen defending MX1 number one David Philippaerts post his first victory of the season on the Yamaha Monster Energy factory machine.
The Italian went 1-2 for his first win since the 2008 GP of Czech Republic; the fourth MX1 success of his career and the third in the distinctive black colors of his team. Yamaha have now owned five of the first round of the series with all of their big hitters, Philippaerts, Tony Cairoli, Josh Coppins and Tanel Leok having tried and fitted the winner’s garland.
Red Bull KTM’s Max Nagl claimed the other checkered flag and second place overall ahead of LS Honda’s Clement Desalle. Nagl holeshotted both motos but a fall in the first race allowed the pursuing Philippaerts to take control. The youngster made no such mistake the second time and walked the rostrum for the first time in 2009 in what has been a troublesome campaign so far with hand and wrist injuries. Desalle is now the top-ranked Honda rider and the Belgian collected his second trophy of the term.
Series leader Cairoli (Yamaha Red Bull De Carli) was the victim of a first corner pile-up in Saturday’s qualification heat and back pain contributed to a night of little sleep and an uncomfortable set of motos from which he started from mid-to-rear pack. Eighth position overall remarkably only saw two points chipped from his window of 36 at the top of the standings, as Spanish GP winner Jonathan Barragan (Silver Action KTM) broke his clutch and did not score in moto two, while Ken De Dycker (Teka Suzuki) suffered from shoulder and wrist injuries as well as kicking a neutral out of the gate at the start of the second sprint.
Philippaerts, after a quiet start to the season in which he only took two podiums, has shifted up to second ahead of Barragan and trails Cairoli by 34 points.
In the MX2 division, Marvin Musquin controversially swept every session across the Mallory bumps and jumps in which overtaking was difficult and therefore entertainment limited. The Frenchman and championship leader left his privateer NGS Honda team to take the vacant berth in the factory Red Bull KTM squad and now legal matters are being discussed by both parties. Musquin has won two GPs with different bikes and now leads the standings by 15 points over Gautier Paulin (third at Mallory) while another all-French podium was completed with Steven Frossard in second.
In other news Martin Honda asked former rider and MX1 title challenger (in 2004 and 2005 before his GP career ended mysteriously in 2006) Mickael Pichon to come out of semi-retirement and steer the dusty factory CRFs left by the injured Kevin Strijbos and Marc de Reuver. The 33-year-old Frenchman astonished the paddock by trying the bike for the first time late Friday afternoon and then taking second place in the qualification heat and using his graceful and smooth style to score two seventh positions and leave the Italian team extremely pleased on Sunday. Pichon has a three-race agreement with the squad and faces his home GP next.
American Zach Osborne, winner of the MX2 GP of Turkey, tried to return from his chipped left radius wrist bone but managed only several laps before the pain became intolerable. He will now hope to mount his Utag Yamaha in three weeks for the trip to Germany.
Round eight will take place at Ernee next week (site of the 2005 Motocross of Nations) for the Grand Prix of France. Trips to Germany, Latvia and Sweden will occur in the next four weeks.
MX1 MOTO 1: 1. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), 38:59.149; ; 2. Clement Desalle (BEL, Honda), +0:03.351; 3. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), +0:06.308; 4. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), +0:10.966; 5. Joshua Coppins (NZL, Yamaha), +0:30.006; 6. Ken de Dycker (BEL, Suzuki), +0:34.966; 7. Mickael Pichon (FRA, Honda), +0:35.680; 8. Tanel Leok (EST, Yamaha), +0:37.779; 9. Gregory Aranda (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:39.483; 10. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, Yamaha), +0:41.467.
MX1 MOTO 2: 1. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), 39:36.111; ; 2. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), +0:16.922; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, Honda), +0:27.179; 4. Joshua Coppins (NZL, Yamaha), +0:32.638; 5. Billy Mackenzie (GBR, Honda), +0:35.068; 6. Tanel Leok (EST, Yamaha), +0:38.133; 7. Mickael Pichon (FRA, Honda), +0:42.798; 8. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, Yamaha), +0:46.834; 9. Gregory Aranda (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:48.454; 10. Carl Nunn (GBR, Suzuki), +0:50.837.
MX1 MOTO OVERALL: 1. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), 47 points; 2. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), 43 p.; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, Honda), 42 p.; 4. Joshua Coppins (NZL, Yamaha), 34 p.; 5. Tanel Leok (EST, Yamaha), 28 p.; 6. Mickael Pichon (FRA, Honda), 28 p.; 7. Ken de Dycker (BEL, Suzuki), 25 p.; 8. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, Yamaha), 24 p.; 9. Gregory Aranda (FRA, Kawasaki), 24 p.; 10. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), 20 p.;
MX1 CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS: 1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, Yamaha), 255 points; 2. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), 221 p.; 3. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), 215 p.; 4. Joshua Coppins (NZL, Yamaha), 209 p.; 5. Ken de Dycker (BEL, Suzuki), 208 p.; 6. Clement Desalle (BEL, Honda), 204 p.; 7. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), 198 p.; 8. Tanel Leok (EST, Yamaha), 190 p.; 9. Gareth Swanepoel (RSA, Kawasaki), 106 p.; 10. David Vuillemin (FRA, Kawasaki), 101 p..
MX2 MOTO 1: 1. Marvin Musquin (FRA, KTM), 39:28.219; ; 2. Steven Frossard (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:05.712; 3. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:21.694; 4. Davide Guarneri (ITA, Yamaha), +0:28.602; 5. Manuel Monni (ITA, Yamaha), +0:29.792; 6. Anthony Boissiere (FRA, KTM), +0:31.532; 7. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), +0:40.667; 8. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, KTM), +0:42.617; 9. Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki), +0:45.415; 10. Xavier Boog (FRA, Suzuki), +0:46.617.
MX2 MOTO 2: 1. Marvin Musquin (FRA, KTM), 40:08.249; ; 2. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), +0:03.512; 3. Steven Frossard (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:26.587; 4. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:35.929; 5. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, KTM), +0:38.757; 6. Stephen Sword (GBR, KTM), +0:40.706; 7. Xavier Boog (FRA, Suzuki), +0:41.716; 8. Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki), +0:50.100; 9. Manuel Monni (ITA, Yamaha), +0:52.314; 10. Davide Guarneri (ITA, Yamaha), +1:05.873;
MX2 OVERALL: 1. Marvin Musquin (FRA, KTM), 50 points; 2. Steven Frossard (FRA, Kawasaki), 42 p.; 3. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), 38 p.; 4. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), 36 p.; 5. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, KTM), 29 p.; 6. Davide Guarneri (ITA, Yamaha), 29 p.; 7. Manuel Monni (ITA, Yamaha), 28 p.; 8. Xavier Boog (FRA, Suzuki), 25 p.; 9. Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki), 25 p.; 10. Anthony Boissiere (FRA, KTM), 25 p..
MX2 CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS: 1. Marvin Musquin (FRA, KTM), 234 points; 2. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), 219 p.; 3. Davide Guarneri (ITA, Yamaha), 208 p.; 4. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), 202 p.; 5. Steven Frossard (FRA, Kawasaki), 178 p.; 6. Xavier Boog (FRA, Suzuki), 166 p.; 7. Nicolas Aubin (FRA, Yamaha), 136 p.; 8. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, KTM), 118 p.; 9. Manuel Monni (ITA, Yamaha), 115 p.; 10. Zach Osborne (USA, Yamaha), 100 p.;
