Desalle just misses the podium in Spain
By Team TMX on 30th May 16
Clement Desalle of the Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team raced to third place in the opening moto of the Spanish round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Talavera de la Reina.
The stylish Belgian was making his return to racing after recent injuries and deliberately eased his way back through qualification but he used the power of his KX450F-SR to immediately take over third place in the opening GP moto at the hillside track to finish just eleven seconds behind the winner.
After another good start in race two he surrendered a few positions through the first few corners but fought back defiantly to finish the race in sixth position. The combined results of both motos saw him narrowly miss the overall GP podium but his 35 points haul was his best to date this season and augurs well for the second half of the season.
Tommy Searle of Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki shrugged off recent knee injuries to join Desalle in the top ten of the first race after a solid ride from thirteenth on lap one, but the Englishman collided with another rider on the opening lap of race two and was unable to continue.
Desalle's KRT teammate Jordi Tixier had a frustrating weekend. After taking eleventh place in qualification he never settled on race day and could only finish fifteenth and thirteenth.
Clement Desalle: "It's great to be back in the first three! For sure I missed the overall podium by a few points but it's been some time since I finished one race in the top three. It's a good comeback; my feeling with the bike was better this weekend but we still need to work as I didn't spent so much time on it since February due to my injuries. Today the start was so important that you couldn't afford to miss it; the first one was good, but at the second one I lost a few positions through the first few corners. Since Latvia at the start of the month I've only been able to train four times but I felt ready to come here and to actually race is the best training you can have. Now we'll continue to work with the team; I want to get more and more podium results.”
Tommy Searle: "This week was the first time I've been able to practice since I hurt my meniscus and my knee five weeks ago as I needed to let them recover, but coming here I didn't felt good and I struggled all weekend. In the second race I got a better start in tenth or eleventh but then I hit another rider in a downhill and crashed and hit my head again, same as two weeks ago. Things seem to go wrong at the moment; I'm trying to do my best and I think a lot of problems come from the starts. We changed a little bit on the bike snd I think we found something that will help, so we stay positive.”
Jordi Tixier: "A weekend to forget for me; I never had a good feeling with the track and struggled in both races. It's difficult to accept that, as I nearly won the MX2 GP here last year, but we'll continue to work and will try to get better results next weekend in France.”
