Febvre extends championship lead with Latvian MXGP podium
By Team TMX on 13th Jul 15
Yamaha Factory Racing Romain Febvre raced his way to third overall and his seventh consecutive podium finish at Kegums for the MXGP of Latvia. Team-mate and also on the YZ450FM, Jeremy Van Horebeek, was seventh overall in front of 23,000 spectators.
After two Grands Prix across hard-pack the loose terrain and sandy texture of the Kegums soil was a welcome change and heavy showers on Saturday night and through Sunday morning helped create a rough, bumpy and technical course. The hard areas of the track still caught out many for grip.
On a drier Saturday afternoon Febvre chased Gautier Paulin closely to finish second in the qualification heat and earn the same pick in the gate for Sunday. Van Horebeek could not make the best of starts and also had a small crash to finish seventh; unfortunately for the Belgian it would set a trend on Sunday.
Sunday dawned wet and cool and Kegums was a different prospect. The layout dried quickly but only narrowed the principal racing lines. Febvre tangled with Tommy Searle at the beginning of the first moto and went down. The championship leader then had to embark on a race-long fight back through the pack and his progress was fantastic. He reached eighth position after the thirty minutes and two laps distance. Van Horebeek had Steven Frossard for company for most of the sprint but comfortably kept the French Motocross of Nations winner at bay to make sure of fifth place.
Belated sunshine had arrived by the time of the second motos but the stiff breeze kept a moody sky blowing across the venue. In the next launch Febvre was superb and seized the lead on the second corner to open a seven second margin towards his seventh moto win from the last seven Grands Prix (he is now the most successful MXGP racer this term). Van Horebeek was again frustrated out of the sandy gate and while straining for ground and positions in the top ten suffered a fall that dropped him to thirteenth. ‘89' rode hard to recover to ninth.
The MXGP classification in Latvia means that Febvre has increased his cushion behind possession of the red plate to 41 points with trips to Czech Republic, Belgium, Italy, Holland, Mexico and the USA still to go. Van Horebeek is eighth and closing on Shaun Simpson in seventh spot.
DP19 Racing Yamaha's David Philippaerts could only take fifteenth place overall after encountering a recurring problem with his exhaust silencers that restricted the performance of the YZ450F and permitted no better than a 17-16. The former world champion is twelfth in the MXGP table.
