Round 12 of the MX1 World Championship in Hyvinkää signified the first Grand Prix in Finland since 2000. Sand specialists found a fast and sandy track to suit their liking. The Hyvinkää circuit turned out to be very similar to the typically rough and flat circuits normally found in Belgium or the Netherlands. The team’s substitute rider Klemen Gercar rode to 23rd on his debut outing in the MX1 class and on the 24MX Honda CRF450R. The Finnish GP in MX1 was won by Tony Cairoli, in front of Clément Desalle and Kevin Strijbos.
For most riders the third championship race in a row was to be an entirely new experience. The venue about 60 km north of Helsinki of course felt like familiar for team rider Santtu Tiainen. But unfortunately the determined Tiainen had to sit out his home event due to a knee injury he picked up in Latvia. MX3 championship leader Klemen Gercar made the best of his free weekend although the Slovenian stand-in found the Hyvinkää course a lot sandier and rougher than expected. Finishing 21st both in pre-qualifying and in the 20-minute plus two lap sprint on Saturday Klemen focused on adapting to the bike and the track. Klemen had a weak start in the opening moto, to make things even more difficult he got stuck behind the pile-up in the second corner. From way back the 22-year old made his way into the points fight. However, Gercar was making too many mistakes to hold onto 20th position and settled for 23rd.
The track was chewed up, and even more demanding for the second MX1 moto. Starting from the outside Klemen had a lot of catching up to do but once he found his rhythm, the Ufo rider put in some solid laps. Gercar looked more and more comfortable on the Dunlop-shod 2013 Honda CRF450 and climbed up from 25th to take 22nd at the chequered flag.
Klemen Gercar: “The weekend was all about experience really. For my first ever MX1 GP the sand was a lot deeper than I had anticipated! Still the track was quite fast and you also had this challenging double, so alltogether pretty difficult indeed. Add the fact that I didn’t train in the sand for four months and I was new to the bike. That’s why I decided to concentrate on myself. As the weekend went on my riding improved and in the second moto I was riding smoother and made less mistakes. To be honest I would need a lot more time preparing in the sand to be fast here. Still I think it was a great oppportunity for which I thank 24MX Honda and my Ufo Racing Team for letting me doing this race. And going up against the fastest guys in the world only made me more determined to take the world title in the FIM MX3 World Championship! Next weekend we have the MX3 round in Ukraïne, in total we have 4 GP’s left. My goal is to become the first ever Slovenian Motocross world champion.”
Steven Lettani, team manager and owner 24MX Honda Racing: “We enjoyed working with Klemen even though his results didn’t reflect his skills, nor his potential. But obviously the step from the MX3 World Championship to MX1 is considerable. Last year we took an MX3 podium with Jonathan Barragan in France and for most of the season ‘JB’ was between 10th and 15th in MX1… From the one hand I have to admit that the track conditions in Finland were very testing this weekend. Especially because Klemen feels more at home on hard-pack terrain. On the other hand it was a big ask to adapt immediately to a new bike. Of course he’s been doing great with the 2012 Honda but our 2013 CRF450R with the Showa-WV2 Suspension and Dunlop tyres is a completely different animal. I wish Klemen, Ladislav (Ed; team manager/owner of Ufo Racing Team) and our colleagues over there the very best in their pursuit to offer Honda the MX3 world title.”
MX1 Moto 1
1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 39:23.418; 2. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), +0:06.700; 3. Ken de Dycker (BEL, KTM), +0:11.075; 4. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:13.381; 5. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), +0:17.518; 6. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:29.507; 7. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:31.544; 8. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), +0:34.243; 9. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Honda), +0:40.742; 10. Joel Roelants (BEL, Yamaha), +0:49.945; 11. Shaun Simpson (GBR, Yamaha), +1:04.303; 12. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +1:42.490; 13. David Philippaerts (ITA, Honda), +1:57.752; 14. Matiss Karro (LAT, KTM), -1 lap(s); 15. Juss Laansoo (EST, KTM), -1 lap(s); 16. Herjan Brakke (NED, Yamaha), -1 lap(s); 17. Davide Guarneri (ITA, KTM), -1 lap(s); 18. Ludvig Söderberg (FIN, Honda), -1 lap(s); 19. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), -1 lap(s); 20. Augusts Justs (LAT, Honda), -1 lap(s); 21. Vytautas Bucas (LTU, Honda), -1 lap(s); 22. Mikola Paschynskyi (UKR, KTM), -2 lap(s); 23. Klemen Gercar (SLO, 24 MX Honda Racing), -2 lap(s); 24. Toni Eriksson (FIN, KTM), -14 lap(s); 25. Teemu Lehtinen (FIN, Kawasaki), -16 lap(s); 26. Marko Kovalainen (FIN, Honda), -17 lap(s); 27. Tanel Leok (EST, TM), -18 lap(s)
MX1 Moto 2
1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 39:10.609; 2. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), +0:05.638; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), +0:07.258; 4. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:11.691; 5. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:17.361; 6. Ken de Dycker (BEL, KTM), +0:40.436; 7. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), +0:41.064; 8. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:52.288; 9. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Honda), +0:55.723; 10. Joel Roelants (BEL, Yamaha), +1:00.203; 11. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +1:28.805; 12. Matiss Karro (LAT, KTM), +1:35.732; 13. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), +1:44.911; 14. Shaun Simpson (GBR, Yamaha), +1:50.416; 15. Herjan Brakke (NED, Yamaha), -1 lap(s); 16. Davide Guarneri (ITA, KTM), -1 lap(s); 17. Tanel Leok (EST, TM), -1 lap(s); 18. Augusts Justs (LAT, Honda), -1 lap(s); 19. Juss Laansoo (EST, KTM), -1 lap(s); 20. Vytautas Bucas (LTU, Honda), -1 lap(s); 21. Ludvig Söderberg (FIN, Honda), -1 lap(s); 22. Klemen Gercar (SLO, 24MX Honda Racing), -1 lap(s); 23. Mikola Paschynskyi (UKR, KTM), -2 lap(s); 24. Toni Eriksson (FIN, KTM), -9 lap(s); 25. David Philippaerts (ITA, Honda), -10 lap(s);
GP of Finland MX1
1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 50 points; 2. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), 42 p.; 3. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), 38 p.; 4. Ken de Dycker (BEL, KTM), 35 p.; 5. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, Kawasaki), 34 p.; 6. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), 33 p.; 7. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), 27 p.; 8. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), 27 p.; 9. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Honda), 24 p.; 10. Joel Roelants (BEL, Yamaha), 22 p.; 11. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), 19 p.; 12. Shaun Simpson (GBR, Yamaha), 17 p.; 13. Matiss Karro (LAT, KTM), 16 p.; 14. Herjan Brakke (NED, Yamaha), 11 p.; 15. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), 10 p.; 16. Davide Guarneri (ITA, KTM), 9 p.; 17. Juss Laansoo (EST, KTM), 8 p.; 18. David Philippaerts (ITA, Honda), 8 p.; 19. Tanel Leok (EST, TM), 4 p.; 20. Augusts Justs (LAT, Honda), 4 p.; 21. Ludvig Söderberg (FIN, Honda), 3 p.; 22. Vytautas Bucas (LTU, Honda), 1 p.; 23. Klemen Gercar (SLO, 24MX Honda), 0 p.; 24. Mikola Paschynskyi (UKR, KTM), 0 p.; 25. Toni Eriksson (FIN, KTM), 0 p.; 26. Teemu Lehtinen (FIN, Kawasaki), 0 p.; 27. Marko Kovalainen (FIN, Honda), 0 p.;
MX1 World Standings after 12 rounds
1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 564 points; 2. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), 465 p.; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), 456 p.; 4. Ken de Dycker (BEL, KTM), 441 p.; 5. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), 365 p.; 6. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), 337 p.; 7. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, Kawasaki), 305 p.; 8. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Honda), 296 p.; 9. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), 230 p.; 10. Davide Guarneri (ITA, KTM), 195 p.; 11. David Philippaerts (ITA, Honda), 191 p.; 12. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), 183 p.; 13. Shaun Simpson (GBR, Yamaha), 178 p.; 14. Xavier Boog (FRA, KTM), 173 p.; 15. Joel Roelants (BEL, Yamaha), 169 p.; 16. Tanel Leok (EST, TM), 139 p.; 17. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), 116 p.; 18. Matiss Karro (LAT, KTM), 101 p.; 19. Steven Frossard (FRA, Yamaha), 60 p.; 20. Augusts Justs (LAT, Honda), 51 p.; 21. Dennis Ullrich (GER, KTM), 24 p.; 22. Milko Potisek (FRA, Yamaha), 19 p.; 23. Jason Dougan (GBR, Honda), 19 p.; 24. Kasper Lynggaard (DEN, Yamaha), 17 p.; 25. Herjan Brakke (NED, Yamaha), 17 p.; 26. Nikolaj Larsen (DEN, Honda), 17 p.; 27. Santtu Tiainen (FIN, 24MX Honda), 12 p.; 28. Billy Mackenzie (GBR, Yamaha), 12 p.; 29. Adam Chatfield (GBR, Honda), 12 p.; 30. Gregory Aranda (FRA, Kawasaki), 12 p.; 31. Nicolas Aubin (FRA, Honda) 12 p.; 32. Lauri Lehtla (EST, KTM), 12 p.; 33. Davis Ivanovs (LAT, Kawasaki), 11 p.; 34. Antonio Balbi (BRA, Kawasaki), 9 p.; 35. Mikola Paschynskyi (UKR, KTM), 9 p.; 36. Juss Laansoo (EST, KTM), 8 p.; 37. Stefano Dami (ITA, Yamaha), 7 p.; 38. Jens Getteman (BEL, 24MX Honda), 6 p.; 39. Nathan Watson (GBR, KTM), 6 p.; 40. Cedric Soubeyras (FRA, Honda), 6 p.; 41. Kenny Van Dueren (BEL, KTM),6 p.; 42. Fabien Izoird (FRA, Suzuki), 5 p.; 43. Jamie Law (GBR, KTM), 4 p.; 44. Loic Leonce (FRA, Yamaha), 4 p.; 45. Ludvig Söderberg (FIN, Honda), 3 p.; 46. Filip Bengtsson (SWE, KTM), 3 p.; 47. Hugo Santos (POR, KTM), 3 p.; 48. Jean Carlo Ramos (BRA, Kawasaki), 3 p.; 49. Marc de Reuver (NED, KTM), 2 p.; 50. Masanori Ito (JPN, Yamaha), 2 p.; 51. Vytautas Bucas (LTU, Honda), 2 p.; 52. Ivo Steinbergs (LAT, KTM), 2 p.; 53. Fabio Ferrari (ITA, Honda), 1 p.; 54. Kim Lindström (SWE, KTM), 1 p.; 55. Mateus Basso (BRA, Kawasaki), 1