After another rainy Friday, the weather was good in Namur today (clouds and mild temperatures) for the qualifications at the ninth round of the MX World Championship. Since last year, the historic track has been redesigned in some places, but it still retains its main characteristics.
Most of the 125cc riders were discovering this track for the first time, as that class has never raced here. It was not a problem for Frenchman Luigi Seguy, who had a great qualifying race a few weeks after climbing on his first podium of the season in France. Only ninth after the opening lap, the French rider came to the lead after eight laps and beat Breugelmans and Kenneth Gundersen, who was leading most of the race. Eric Eggens won the second qualifying race after a disappointing French GP, followed by Brit James Dobb, now suffering from another injury to the left shoulder thanks to a crash last week! Steve Ramon had a strong race and finished third after a very bad start.
In the 250cc class, defending champ Frederic Bolley got his second pole position of the year, beating all his rivals; the track was wet at the beginning of the session, but became dryer and dryer, and most of the riders had their best lap in the final minutes. German Pit Beirer finished second, confirming his good French result, followed by Claudio Federici, Yves Demaria and points-leader Mickael Pichon. That was the worst qualifyhing result of the season for the Corona Suzuki-mounted Frenchman, as he crashed at mid session on a double jump and then was unable to improve his result.
Ine the 500cc class, Marnicq Bervoets got his first pole position of the season, confirming that following his arm-pump operation, he is back at his best level; defending champ Joel Smets and Garcia Vico finished second and third, and the surprise was the sixth rank of points leader Stefan Everts, his worst qualification of the season; the Rinaldi Yamaha-mounted Belgian had a couple of mistakes and crashed during the session, but remained confident for the race, as he learned all the track particularities during the practice sessions. Andrea Bartolini finished 11th in his comeback, and although enduro star David Fretigne didn’t qualified in this class, fellow off-roader Juha Salminen got a good 23rd position in the 250cc division.
125 Qualifier 1: 1. Seguy; 2. Breugelmans; 3. Gundersen; 4. Puzar; 5. De Reuver; 6. Chiodi; 7. Oddenino; 8. Bill; 9. Dorsch; 10. Wybo; 11. Caps; 12. Bricca.
125 Qualifier 2: 1. Eggens; 2. Dobb; 3. Ramon; 4. Belometti; 5. Jorgensen; 6. Guidetty; 7. Strijbos; 8. Kallonen; 9. Ravaglia; 10. Salaets; 11. Cervantes; 12. Letellier.
125 LCQ: 1. Dupasquier; 2. Mackenzie; 3. Rattray; 4. De Dijcker; 5. Laansoo; 6. Oliviera.
250 Qualifier: 1. Bolley; 2. Beirer; 3. Federici; 4. Demaria; 5. Pichon; 6. Coppins; 7. Cooper; 8. Kovalainen; 9. Maschio; 10. Crockard; 11. Aubert; 12. Vehvilainen; 13. Theybers; 14. Dugmore; 15. Freibergs.
500 Qualifier: 1. Bervoets; 2. Smets; 3. Garcia Vico; 4. Aaltonen; 5. Asplund; 6. Everts; 7. Lindhe; 8. Johansson; 9. King; 10. Burnham; 11. Bartolini; 12. Melotte; 13. McFarlane; 14. Noble; 15. Machtlinger.
