Kawasaki’s young riders ended the Dutch round of the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship had little reward for their brave efforts in the unrelenting sand of the Eurocircuit at Valkenswaard.
Young French and Italian riders have often found the sandy tracks in the Netherlands a unique challenge, so different to the hard pack tracks on which they learnt to ride, and the Dutch GP proved doubly difficult for Kawasaki’s young trio as each suffered more than their fair share of misfortune.
Dylan Ferrandis of Rockstar Bud Racing Kawasaki and Alessandro Lupino of Team CLS MX2 Kawasaki Monster Energy Pro Circuit faced an uphill task all weekend after both of them were involved in a collision at the opening turn during the qualification race, the handicap denying each of them a good choice of gate at the start for both of the points-scoring races. The disadvantage was doubly great at the Eurocircuit as a new start layout meant that the riders on the outside of the gate faced a significantly longer charge to the first corner.
Ferrandis used the power of his KX250F to exit turn one in tenth position in the first race and he maintained this position to the finish, only to suffer the disappointment of being pushed out of the points post-race when it was discovered that his exhaust had been damaged in a collision. The French teenager bravely put the frustration behind him in race two, but had less luck at the opening turn and was forced to spend the entire race charging hard with just fifteenth place as his reward.
Lupino had little joy at the start of both races but raced superbly in the second race to advance into the top ten from a 28th placed start, only to crash hard in the closing stages of the race as he tried to move further up the leaderboard.
Jordan Lacan, a French teenager drafted in at the last minute to replace the injured Arnaud Tonus for Team CLS, battled hard all weekend but, having never previously raced in sand during his career, inevitably found the challenge difficult. He failed to score world championship points after finishing 28th and 26th but the experience will benefit him in his future career.
Bud Racing’s Valentin Teillet did not contest the Dutch GP after being severely shaken in a big crash at the previous weekend’s French championship race but he will return to GP action in Italy in two week’s time.
Dylan Ferrandis: “I didn’t know what I could expect from this GP as I broke a finger in my right hand last week at the French championship, but in the end it was not too painful. I crashed with Lupino at the start of the qualifying race so I only had twenty fourth pick at the gate, but my first start was pretty good. I raced the entire race in tenth and I was happy with this result, but the exhaust must have been damaged in a collision and I received a penalty of one minute after the noise control. I was so sad! My second start wasn’t as good as the first one, and I could only finish fifteenth, so it was not a great weekend.”
Alessandro Lupino: “I have spent a lot of time in the Netherlands to prepare for this race, but I didn’t get the reward this weekend. The crash at the start of the qualifying race ruined my GP, as it left me twenty-sixth on the grid. In the first moto my feeling was not good and I made too many mistakes, but we changed some settings on the bike before the second race. Again my start wasn’t good but I recovered to tenth and was moving in on Pocock for ninth when I crashed with only two laps to the finish. I am determined to make up for my bad luck at the next round in Italy.”
Jordan Lacan: “The team asked me to race here on Thursday, and I only had chance to ride the bike for one hour before coming here. I knew that it would be difficult as I have never raced in the sand but you can’t refuse such a great opportunity, and I did my best. I finished both races, but my start was really bad in the first race and then I crashed at the start of the second one.”