Red Bull KTM’s Pauls Jonass was again able to describe himself as “lucky” after surviving another wince-inducing crash.
The Latvian tumbled hard in the first moto of the Grand Prix of Thailand and is now unwillingly building up a catalogue of spectacular get-offs with his ‘flights’ in Sweden and Mexico from 2015 some of the most-watched video clips of last season. “All is good after the crash, luckily, I had a little bit of a sore leg but that is now almost 100 per cent,” he said. “I am already riding a lot with the bike and making many laps.”
The ’15 MX2 World Championship runner-up is still coming back to speed in just his second full Grand Prix term and since recovering from a thumb injury in the winter that affected his plans for 2016.
“Before the season I didn’t have enough bike time because of my injury and my goal for the first two GPs was just to get some decent points and I did better than I expected in Qatar,” he said of his third placed finish at Losail before recovering to fifth at Suphan Buri. “Two top five overall positions would have been enough.”
“I’m really motivated going to Valkenswaard,” he added one week before thinking about round three on Easter weekend. “Physically I feel very strong…I just need bike hours. In the last week I already did more time on the 250SX-F than I managed in total this year before Qatar.”
Jonas is currently fourth in the MX2 standings and just six points behind Jeremy Seewer in second place as KTM team-mate Jeffrey Herlings heads the table with a perfect scorecard after four of 36 motos.
