Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Romain Febvre is undoubtedly the man of the moment in MXGP and his second victory in a row last weekend in Italy was taken in spectacular fashion.
The 23-year-old Frenchman pulled an advantage in the first moto by almost 25 seconds and then came back from a hefty crash with a damaged YZ450FM to secure sixth position and the top step of the podium; a ceremony he has not missed at the last four events. Here is what he had to say afterwards in an exclusive chat…
DBR: Romain, can you get any better or faster?
RF: Yeah, the first moto was pretty good! With the mud the start was so important and in that moto I was second and very quickly there was a gap behind me and Philippaerts so I took my time to pass him cleanly. I pulled away – not that easily because it never is – but got up to twenty-four seconds.
DBR: Well, it looked easy…
RF: Yeah, but it isn’t! Although when you start to have a big gap then you relax more and ride easier. You enjoy it and you can keep going faster.
DBR: What happens during the days after a Grand Prix victory? Do you feed off it for a while? How do you handle what you have achieved?
RF: I’m someone who doesn’t like to change things too much but for sure when win then you take more calls, have a few more press things to do and you have to be ‘here and there’ for one thing or another. So life has changed a little bit in the last few weeks but I try to keep a routine and I think it is working at the moment.
See also: Romain Febvre stays with blue – signs for two years with Yamaha
DBR: Your team-mate Jeremy Van Horebeek said he had some new things on the Yamaha this weekend…you also?
RF: We had a test last week on Tuesday and Wednesday and we improved the bike in terms of the engine again. It was definitely better this weekend. We still keep working and the team never stop. When I crossed the line and had done the TV interview they were already asking me about parts we can improve further.
I think we made a forward step this week. We will keep the same settings for Teutschenthal but then there is a free weekend from Grand Prix so we will head to Italy again for another test. For myself I think I am training and working pretty good and you can see that on the bike and during the race. I don’t think I need to change that much but the bike we can always look at.
DBR: Lastly, you won in front of a crazy crowd in France, another large attendance here and there will be a load more people in Germany this coming weekend. You like the big stage?
RF: For sure France was really special and for sure there will not be another GP like that for me. To win at home is always nice and it was really great. Here they were for the Italians – even though there were some French fans in there – and in Germany they will be for Max [Nagl]. Maybe the pressure will start to come a little bit now…but even when we were in France I didn’t feel it. I think it will be good.
