Monster Kawasaki’s Romain Febvre just missed out on his first 2021 FIM World Motocross championship moto win yesterday at Matterley Basin.
After finishing third fastest on the sunday mornings timed practice in Winchester, the Frenchman struggled off the start in the busy first moto, but managed to break into the top ten, completing with a seventh place finish.
Moto two was a different ball game for the KX450 rider, grabbing a holeshot and managing to hold onto the lead swapping back and forth with HRC Honda Tim Gajser right up until the last few corners, where he just lost out on the win.
“A lot of guys were fast today and with a bad start in the first race it was not so easy to come back through the pack,” said Febvre.
“My jump out of the gate was good but I was maybe too far inside and after the first corner I was outside the top ten. I came back strongly to seventh, but then the speed was similar with my rivals and it wasnāt possible to make the difference.
“I changed my gate pick for the second race and my start was much better as I got the holeshot andĀ for sure that made life much easier! There was one section on the track where I didnāt find the best line, that is where Tim passed me as I didnāt know which one he would choose.
“We exchanged the lead several times during the last two laps and in the end he won. Itās always frustrating to lead all the raceĀ apart from the last two laps but thatās it weāll continue to work before Maggiora next weekend.”
