Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre was the weekend’s top scorer in the fourth round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Pietramurata in the glorious Trentino region of northern Italy.
Full of confidence after his Qualifying victory on Saturday the Frenchman gated second in both GP motos and, utilising to perfection the drifting skills and sense for traction he learnt as a teenager in supermoto, he was clearly the fastest man on track in race one as he dogged the series leader for seven laps before soaring past to immediately pull clear and maintain a comfortable three-second lead until the last lap when lappers came into play. Retaining his composure he defended his line successfully to bring home his first twenty-five point maximum score of the season. A similar scenario developed through the early stages of race two; after a couple of laps the Frenchman came up fractionally short of taking over the lead as he dramatically pulled alongside but a momentary loss of traction on lap seven pushed him back to fifth in an instant. With the track surface becoming slicker every lap all of the leaders were forced to take ever more care and positions remained unchanged to the finish. The fall narrowly cost the Kawasaki rider the overall GP victory on the day but he could take consolation from scoring the most world championship points over the complete weekend to regain third in the series standings and pull back six points on the series leader.
Romain Febvre: “We worked hard on the starts this week to find some good solutions and it paid off with the holeshot yesterday and two second-placed starts today. Once I took the lead in the first moto I just concentrated on riding safe and managed the gap to Tim after he passed into second. The last lap was pretty hectic with the lapped riders but it was to my advantage that it is not easy to pass here even when you get closer. I tried to attack at the beginning of the second race; I knew I was faster and the track was quite slippery so there was a chance to make the difference. I knew I would win the GP in second so I wasn’t taking chances and I was usually careful in that corner because there was quite a lot of water there but somehow I lost the front wheel; my fault. After that I tried to catch Tim again but we both had the same pace so I had to settle for fifth. Of course I am disappointed not to win the GP but there were a lot of positives this weekend and I made good points for the championship.”
Jeremy Seewer narrowly missed joining his KRT teammate on the podium as he continues to build confidence in his first season on Kawasaki for his most impressive performance of the year with two top-five finishes for fifth overall. He quickly turned a sixth-placed start into fifth in race one but then faced more than twenty frustrating minutes before he could move Swiss compatriot Valentin Guillod high in a turn for fourth. The position looked secure until he was surprised by a hard-charging multiple champion on the final lap. An even better performance in race two saw him quickly move into fourth and then take third, just seven seconds behind the winner, when his teammate fell. He was fifth in the overall classification, a slender four points off the podium in a tight overall result, and is now just a single point from fifth in the series standings.
Jeremy Seewer: “It was a very solid weekend. Of course I am used to podiums and wins but it’s coming; I was very consistent and took a step closer in every race with no sketchy moments and always in my comfort zone. My starts were good but the first corner here is always a battle. The overall doesn’t really show what we did but I had a moto podium; all the hard work is starting to pay off and I’m going to get stronger and stronger as the season goes on. Now we have a break in the schedule, then three GPs in a row; I’m looking forward to that as everyone knows I am one of the fittest.”
Words by Kawasaki EU – Images by Full Spectrum Media
