Conrad Mewse stays positive after MXGP of Trentino

Conrad Mewse (Hitachi KTM fuelled by Milwaukee) continued his recovery from a recent illness with a hard-fought 11th overall in MX2 at Sunday’s MXGP of Trentino.
Mewse started the day with a solid sixth in the opening moto but a bad start and crash in race two limited him to 16th second time out. With two rounds to go he currently lies eighth in the championship chase.
“I was happy to charge up to sixth in the first moto, especially after the difficult week at Lommel,” said Mewse. “A small crash did not help in the second moto and I have just been struggling with weakness after being ill for two weeks but I still put some more points on the board.
“There are some positives to take from the day, so we will take those into Wednesday and continue to move forward.”
His team-mate Bas Vaessen crashed on the opening lap of race one but came back to 19th before signing off with an 11th for 15th overall.
“Today was kind of a whirlwind again,” said Vaessen. “I had a bad start in the first moto, then crashed in the third corner and had bent bars. I came through the pack again and fought back to 19th – it is very hard to pass on this track.
“I had a bit of a better start in the second moto and finished in 11th. I had a good feeling and was fighting all moto so that was good. Hopefully we can get better starts on Wednesday, then it should be good.”
The team’s MXGP representative Adam Sterry was forced to withdraw from his opening moto after two crashes damaged his bike but he picked up points in race two for an 18th-placed finish.
“If you look at the results then it just looks like another round for me,” said Sterry, “but the riding today was definitely positive. The improvements that we made and the way that I felt was a step in the right direction too.
“There were a few small mistakes and things I could not help that stopped that from showing on paper but we get another chance to improve on Wednesday.”