Monster Energy Yamaha Factory rider Romain Febvre roared back onto the podium on Sunday under the mountain walls of Pietramurata, winning the second moto and taking 2nd overall at the MXGP of Trentino.
Teammate Jeremy Van Horebeek raced to great effect on the Italian circuit, picking his way through the tricky rocks and softening dirt to a 7th overall, while Kemea Yamaha Official MX Team’s Valentin Guillod continued his run of fast starts to finish 13th on a day of sunshine, clouds and motocross.
Febvre fought back from a bad start in the first moto and found himself in 10th behind Jordi Tixier of France only to crash again and lose a handful of positions after only four laps. The rest of the race was a full throttle effort on the YZ450FM to catch and pass his way from 17th to 6th, taking on and passing Christophe Charlier of France and Shaun Simpson of Great Britain in multi-lap duels along the way.
In the second moto Febvre rebounded from the energy spent to start much better, and quickly picked his way past riders until he was caught in a direct contest for the best line with race leader Antonio Cairoli of Italy before passing the moto one winner with three laps to go and holding off for the win.
Van Horebeek made the best of recent work with team mechanics to improve starts in both motos on Sunday, moving steadily from 11th to 5th in the first race and following later in the day with another 5th after a mid-moto duel with French rider Gautier Paulin.
Guillod’s start in the first moto was marked by a crash, far away from the 4th he put up in qualifying, and the Swiss rider was unlucky in the final lap of the morning race when he slipped out of the points following a technical issue. In the second moto he recovered with a good start to finish 7th for 13th overall.
In the MXGP World Championship standings Febvre remains 2nd overall and moves to within four points of leader Tim Gajser of Slovenia, who finished 4th at Trentino. Van Horebeek moves up one position to 6th overall behind Evgeny Bobryshev of Russia, and Guillod remains 9th with a seven-point lead over Glenn Coldenhoff of the Netherlands.
