For round 10 of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the Wilvo Forkrent KTM team travelled to Teutschenthal for the German MXGP and round five of the European Motocross Championship with both Steven Frossard and Adam Sterry competing respectively in each championship.
EMX250 Qualifying
Sterry and Graulus were the class acts during qualifying, posting almost identical times with Sterry just losing out by less than five hundredth of a second to his Yamaha rival.
MXGP Qualifying
In MXGP Frossard suffered misfortune in his qualifying race as an electrical fault left him unable to complete his sighting lap. Leaving him unable to take the gate, he was left with 27th gate pick for the main races the following day.
EMX250 Race 1
Sterry was quick out of the gate and in third place quickly before he lost a place on the second corner. He soon took his position back and closed in on Clarke who was running in second. Riding tight he struggled to make the pass on Clarke and eventual winner Graulus stormed past, demoting him back to fourth place. Managing to stay focused, the 18 year old later made a superb pass on Desprey to finish a hard fought third.
EMX250 Race 2
Fired up to take a win second time out, Sterry launched out of the gate in second place just behind Hsu. He soon took the lead and started to gradually pull away until a small mistake after the finish jump had a disastrous outcome and he crashed through the fence.
Becoming entangled and with the fence wrapped around his rear wheel, he was two laps down by the time he had freed his machine. To his credit and continuing to the end despite being aware that he was not going to take any points, he pushed on. His bad luck cost him dear losing the championship lead and dropping him from first to fourth place. With just a nine-point gap between the positions there is still all to play for.
See also: Watch the highlights from the German round of the 2015 European Championship EMX250…
MXGP Race 1
Having to start on the back foot after qualifying the day before, Frossard tried to make up places by cutting across the back of the pack on the start, but his ploy failed miserably as he was left in last round the first turn. Gradually he picked off the slower riders and progressed through to 12th place.
Catching up to Philippaerts his progress was then halted, and although he was to gain one more place as de Dycker crashed out on the penultimate lap he finished in 11th at the line.
MXGP Race 2
Making a much better start in race two in 12th position, Fossard failed to make much progress early on, but when early faller Bobryshev blasted past it soon woke the Frenchman up.
Riding harder and making a couple of passes to move through to 11th, he closed in on the group of four riders in front before he suddenly lost his front on the pit-lane turn and hit the deck. Although he didn’t lose any places, the gap to 10th place was six seconds which he was just never likely to overcome, leaving him again to finish in 11th place and 11th overall.
See also: Watch the highlights from the 2015 MXGP of Germany…
Commenting on the weekend, Adam Sterry said: “Going into the weekend with the championship lead, I was really looking forward to the races. Qualifying went well with my second position placing giving me a good gate pick for the races.
“Race one, I made a good start but rode tight and could only manage third. Race two, I made a better start and soon took the lead but I had a really big crash over the finish jump which I was lucky to walk away from uninjured.
“My bike was stuck in the fence for two laps so I ended up with no points from the race. It was a shame, but positively I am still only nine points back so it’s definitely all to play for.”
“I had a problem with the bike in the qualifying race which left me with a bad gate pick and two hard races,” Steven Frossard said.
He added: “I had a good feeling and good pace but couldn’t close the gap to the leaders. I ideally need to spend more time riding the 450.”
Team Manager, Steve Turner summed up: “It was another tough weekend here in Germany.
“Adam rode a bit tight in the first race for third but looked odds on for the win in the second race until he made a mistake that left him tangled in the fence.
“Although he’s dropped to fourth in the standings he’s only nine points off the lead.
“He’s the class act in the field and I’m confident he will show everyone how good he really is over the next few rounds – I’ll be ordering some more red front plates again from Spiral GFX very soon!
“Steven was unfortunate on Saturday as we encountered a problem with the bike which can only really be put down to bad luck with a part. He looked strong at times during the races but never really threatened the top 10, which is disappointing.”
