Pourcel in Fer kill
By Alex Hodgkinson on 4th May 12
The Brits had the speed, but little luck at Fermo, the expressway in the Marche hills to the south of the Adriatic port of Ancona, which was venue for the weekends Italian GP.
Tommy Searle was the fastest man on the track in MX2, but was taken down soon after the start of both motos. Jake Nicholls ended the day getting checked out at the medical centre after a career-best first moto fourth, and Shaun Simpson was another crash victim after leading home the Yamaha armada in the MX1 opener.
KTM beat Kawasaki 3-1 for moto wins courtesy of Toni Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings, but Christophe Pourcel took the big prize in MX1 with his first GP victory for five years.
Searle and Kawasaki team-mate Joel Roelants had demolished the opposition in Saturday's MX2 qualification, but Britain's world title candidate was one of half-a-dozen riders mowed down by out-of-control Belgian JulienLieber at turn two in the GP opener.
Mel Pocock was the first person to get hit: "One moment I was pumped about my best ever GP start in sixth, the next thing I knew Lieber came storming down the inside and took us down. The bars were twisted, the levers down, my race was over!”
Searle got hit from both sides: "The bars were twisted, the exhaust flattened, and I had no front brake, because I got hit from the other side too and the disc was bent. Normally I would have been able to get back to second, but I was losing more and more power and after getting to eighth, the motor stopped completely – the radiator had been holed aswell!”
With Joel Roelants also making headway from outside the top ten after a bad getaway, the factory KTMs were making hay with Herlings and Jeremy Van Horebeek soon out of sight of the chasers.
By mid-moto Roelants was up to third and set the fastest lap of the race before he got out of shape on a knarly drop-off and his day's racing was ended with concussion.
Nicholls' gate was not up to his usual standards, but Jake was quickly up to third before Ferrandis and Butron came flying past: "They were out of control and never going to last. It was hot out there and I stayed composed, paced myself well and they soon went backwards. Leib was really flying and got past for third, but I was coming back at him too in the last couple of laps – they were my fastest of the race.”
The American had already charged hard in the qualifying race and was setting times equivalent to Herlings: "It's only my second ride on the bike, and I think I answered the people who doubted me through difficult times during the last two years.”
Searle's second race was wrecked even earlier than the first.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX MAY 4
WORLD MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 3 – Fermo, ITALY
1 Christophe Pourcel (F - Kawasaki) 25 + 22 = 47
2 Antonio Cairoli (I - KTM) 20 + 25 = 45
3 Clement Desalle (B - Suzuki) 18 + 20 = 38
4 Gautier Paulin (F - Kawasaki) 22 + 15 = 37
5 Ken De Dycker (B - KTM) 14 + 18 = 32
6 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - Honda) 15 + 16 = 31
7 Kevin Strijbos (B - KTM) 11 + 14 = 25
8 David Philippaerts (I - Yamaha) 12 + 13 = 25
9 Xavier Boog (F - Kawasaki) 16 + 7 = 23
10 Tanel Leok (EST - Suzuki) 10 + 10 = 20
11 Dean Ferris (US - Kawasaki) 4+11=15, 12 Matiss Karro (LAT - KTM) 5+9=14, 13 Davide Guarneri (I - KTM) 9+5=14, 14 Rui Goncalves (P - Honda) 1+12=13, 15 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - Yamaha) 13+0=13, 16 Cedric Soubeyras (F - Honda) 6+6=12, 17 Anthony Boissiere (F - TM) 3+8=11, 18 Matteo Bonini (I - KTM) 8+0=8, 19 Jonathan Barragan (E - Honda) 7+0=7, 20 Herjan Brakke (NL - Yamaha) 0+4=4, 21 Alfie Smith (GB - Yamaha) 0+3=3, 22 Santtu Tiainen (SF - Kawasaki) 0+2=2, 23 Milko Potisek (F - Honda) 2+0=2, 24 Augusts Justs (LAT - Honda) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Christophe Pourcel, 2 Paulin, 3 Cairoli, 4 Desalle, 5 Boog, 6 Bobryshev, 7 De Dycker, 8 SIMPSON, 9 Philippaerts, 10 Strijbos, 11 Leok, 12 Guarneri, 13 Bonini, 14 Barragan, 15 Soubeyras, 16 Karro, 17 Ferris, 18 Boissiere, 19 Potisek, 20 Goncalves.
RACE TWO: 1 Cairoli, 2 Christophe Pourcel, 3 Desalle, 4 De Dycker, 5 Bobryshev, 6 Paulin, 7 Strijbos, 8 Philippaerts, 9 Goncalves, 10 Ferris, 11 Leok, 12 Karro, 13 Boissiere, 14 Boog, 15 Soubeyras, 16 Guarneri, 17 Brakke, 18 Smith, 19 Tiainen, 20 Justs.
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 (of 16) rounds: 1 Cairoli 133 points, 2 Paulin 116, 3 Christophe Pourcel 106, 4 Desalle 105, 5 De Dycker 95, 6 Strijbos 76, 7 Boog 72, 8 Bobryshev 69, 9 Philippaerts 69, 10 Leok 62, 11 SIMPSON 58, 12 Goncalves 54, 13 Frossard 40, 14 Guarneri 36, 15 Karro 35, 16 Barragan 33, 17 Soubeyras 27, 18 Sebastien Pourcel 24, 19 Ferris 22, 20 Bonini 21,... 27 SMITH 4,... 29 PARKER 2,... 31 BARR 1,...
NEXT ROUND: May 13 – Guadalajara, MEXICO.
