MOTOCROSS GP OF ITALY

A heat win for Desalle and a podium for Lupino

The Motocross World Championship returns this weekend to one of the legendary tracks in Italy, as the ninth round of the campaign took place in Maggiora. Winner of the first MX1 race Clement Desalle was forced to retire in the second race with technical issues, while Italian Alessandro Lupino scored his second career podium in the MX2 class.

Winner of the first heat and fifth of the second before his technical trouble, Clement Desalle was a podium contender when he had to retire; he let Paulin, De Dycker and Cairoli on the podium, loosing points in the series. "Everything was good in the first moto; the start, running second and then taking over after Cairoli's crash. I had a good rhythm and set good lap-times and just controlled the gap until the end. I didn't take any risks and I felt really positive for the second moto. The start was so important here and unfortunately I was out of the top five. I fought hard to get back to fourth and suddenly the bike stopped. It was so unlucky." said the Belgian rider.

Already on the podium in Bulgaria, Alessandro Lupino posted a superb result after a strong second race, where he came back second to secure a third overall behind Herlings and Butron. It was a dream for the Italian to get this podium at home. “This podium is like a dream; the public was amazing and that’s a great feeling to get my second podium of the season in my home country. I lost so much time with my broken ribs earlier in the year; I couldn’t train as I usually would and it took time to recover physically. I also missed some good starts in the previous races; we have worked a lot on that point with the team and here it was better. The public pushed me in the last ten minutes of the second race, and when I passed Tonkov I secured this podium. The organisers made a great job to prepare the return of GP racing here in Maggiora, and this podium will remain as a great memory for me,” explained Lupino who broke some ribs after Bulgaria and couldn’t train during several weeks. The GP’s have a break next weekend and then will head up to Scandinavia for the GP’s of Sweden, Latvia and Finland.

Classification MX1
1.Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki)
2.De Dycker (BEL, KTM)
3.Cairoli (ITA, KTM)
4.Van Horebeek (BEL, Kawasaki)
5.Nagl (ALL, Honda)
6.Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki)
7.Searle (GBR, Kawasaki)
8.Guarneri (ITA, KTM)
9.Boog (FRA, KTM)
10.Desalle (BEL, Suzuki)

Standings MX1
1.Cairoli, 417
2.Paulin, 366
3.Desalle, 334
4.De Dycker, 319
5.Strijbos, 271
6.Searle, 266

Classification MX2:
1.Herlings (NED, KTM)
2.Butron (SPA, KTM)
3.Lupino (ITA, Kawasaki)
4.Tixier (FRA, KTM)
5.Nicholls (GBR, KTM)
6.Charlier (FRA, Yamaha)
7.Ferris (AUS, Yamaha)
8.Petrov (BUL, Yamaha)
9.Coldenhoff (NED, KTM)
10.Tonkov (RUS, Honda)

Standings MX2
1.Herlings, 447
2.Tixier, 2323
3.Butron, 285
4.Charlier, 261
5.Coldenhoff, 260