Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Romain Febvre’s superb form in the 2015 MXGP Motocross World Championship continued across the deceptive and punishing hard-pack of Teutschenthal as the Frenchman rode to his third win in row. With the ‘red plate’ as series leader by nine points over Max Nagl ‘461’ is now firmly in the hunt for the MXGP title in his rookie season in the class and his maiden term with the works YZ450FM. Team-mate Jeremy Van Horebeek was fourth overall and tied for the last step of the podium.
The Talkessel turns and combination of step-up and step-down jumps once more threaded through a narrow trajectory where premier class athlete were firmly on the gas and similar lap-times meant overtaking and position swapping often depended on mistakes among the group. 32,000 spectators enjoyed a warmer climate compared to the cold wind of Saturday for practice and qualification and MXGP rattled into the second half of the eighteen round campaign with an exciting second moto where rostrum positions were not decided until the last lap.
Febvre had taken a strong second position on Saturday during the Qualification Heat – just one place in front of Jeremy Van Horebeek – and used the power of the YZ450FM to slot straight behind Dean Ferris at the start of the first moto. RF hounded the Australian until he took control on lap two and then tried to minimise his errors while maintaining the pace and distance over Evgeny Bobryshev. With the chequered flag Romain celebrated another win for the fourth round in a row. After the break and the second MX2 outing Febvre was part of a front-running trio that included Dean Ferris and Gautier Paulin. Once into second place – thus a ranking sufficient for the overall win – Febvre tried to pass his countryman but a dislodged goggle lens impeded his progress and he eased-off to confirm second spot and another overall triumph.
Van Horebeek, now nearing peak fitness and race speed after recovering from his broken foot, rode to a lonely fourth position in the first moto. The Belgian didn’t quite have the consistent times to reach the back of Gautier Paulin in third. In the second race JVH bumped and barged his way around the top five on the first lap but his proximity to Ferris on the steep uphill climb saw the pair almost touch and Jeremy went down. Picking up the YZ450FM Van Horebeek battled hard to catch up and passed Ferris on the final lap for fourth spot. He tied on points with Kevin Strijbos but the latter’s third place just ahead of the Yamaha man was the deciding factor for the podium. Another 4-4 for the 2014 series runner-up means he just misses out on a champagne spray once more.
DP19 Yamaha Racing’s David Philippaerts was unlucky on Saturday to hit Max Nagl’s prone motorcycle on the first lap of the qualification heat. The Italian, who rode so well and narrowly missed the podium at his home Grand Prix last week, was left with a sore right shoulder. The 32 year old attempted the motos and circulated for most of the first outing in eleventh until Ken De Dycker’s crash allowed him to cross the line with tenth place. In the second race DP ended up pushing his bike back to the paddock after a rock smashed his radiator and he lost water causing the engine to stop.
The MXGP World Championship standings now look decidedly positive for the Yamaha crew with Febvre leading Nagl by nine points. Van Horebeek has made up positions after missing two Grands Prix due to injury and is eighth. Philippaerts is also in the mix and sits thirteenth.
MXGP takes a break for one week – with Febvre and Van Horebeek both planning visits at some stage to the TT Assen MotoGP round coming up – but will reconvene at Uddevalla for the Grand Prix of Sweden on July 4-5.
Romain Febvre
1st and 2nd for 1st overall. Championship Position: 1st
“Having the red plate is really nice but this is the tenth GP and there are still sixteen motos to go. There is something like four hundred points still up for distribution so we need to keep consistent. Dean was difficult to pass today and in the second moto we had a nice battle with Gautier but I knew I needed second to win the GP so I made sure of that until the end. We had a lot of crashes this weekend and this is not only because of the riders but the track preparation. They put too much water on the track before our race. We need to take risks for nothing. We have the red plate…but there are eight GPs to go and anything can happen…like we saw this weekend.”
Jeremy van Horebeek
4th and 4th for 4th overall. Championship Position: 8th
“I’m really disappointed, and pretty angry. If it hadn’t have been for that crash at the start of the second moto then I would have been on the podium for sure. I’m getting there every week and I know it will come soon; it should have been today!”