Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Dylan Ferrandis was a frustrated man on Sunday at Valkenswaard. The Frenchman had been searching for an acceptable set-up for his KX250F all weekend and although he believed he had found enough to score his fourth podium of the year his controversial ‘foot plant’ on Pauls Jonass saw #4 penalised by 10 positions in the second moto and dropped to seventh overall.
The incident happened when Ferrandis was attempting to pass the struggling Latvian on the pitlane straight for fourth position deep into the race. The clip (below) has already been seen more than 80,000 times on the official MXGPTV YouTube channel and was the most watched edit here on dirtbikerider.com over the past week.
“When everybody got tired I still felt okay because I was not pushing so much,” Ferrandis said exclusively by way of explanation. “I came back to the pack and two corners before the straight I passed Guillod but he [Jonass] looked at me as we were on the straight and then came across and it was dangerous because we were going so fast and I was scared the handlebars would touch.
“I don’t know why I put my leg out like this – for security…and for sure not to push him. I knew that he was tired and I was faster. I was just scared to crash and we were close together. I’ve had a lot of injury over the years and I did not want an accident.”
Ferrandis’ actions received a rebuke from the FIM and after Jordi Tixier’s one month suspension from racing it is the second time that the heat of MX2 action has affected the hard-working former CLS crew. “I don’t understand the Federation,” Ferrandis, who is keen on a switch to AMA supercross and motocross either in 2016 or the year after said. “Okay, it is not correct but we ride in the world championship and my goal is to win. When you know the risks we take in this sport I think this is nothing. Now I have to stay focussed for Spain.”
Ferrandis will be 21 years old next month and with Jeffrey Herlings widely expected to move into MXGP for 2016 then the Kawasaki stalwart will automatically be considered as one of the favourites for the title and the first to disrupt Red Bull KTM’s grip on the category that has been in place with four different riders since 2008.
The priority for now will be to try and recover points – he sits 37 behind Herlings – and get back to a level of satisfaction with his race bike. “For a couple of weeks we’ve had problems with my suspension and we haven’t found a solution and I’m not happy with the bike,” he said in Holland on Sunday night. “I struggled on Saturday and felt like I was going to crash on every jump. My plan now is stay in Holland and find a solution for the suspension because it was horrible this weekend.”
