La Bañeza’s rise from a national level venue to that of a Grand Prix stage also raised plenty of eyebrows. The hard-working club had evidently made a huge effort to upgrade the basic facility to a standard where it could cope with three series and the vast set-up a GP entails. But the fact of the matter is that the short, rocky and narrow track split opinion. “I think it’s beautiful. I love it,” deadpanned CLS Kawasaki Monster Energy Pro Circuit’s Tommy Searle while Monster Energy Yamaha’s Gautier Paulin claimed to really enjoy the course and said it allowed him to play around with his prototype fuel-injected YZ250FM Yamaha on the way to a fourth MX2 podium in a row.
Cairoli inched closer to the lead of Clement Desalle with his win in Spain.
Photo: Ray Archer
While the surroundings were a talking point (and the 16,000 attendance found pockets of space from which to watch) the racing in MX1 turned what had been a last minute substitute to the 2011 schedule into one of the most memorable meetings of the year. In Moto1 it was Monster Energy Yamaha’s Steven Frossard and David Philippaerts going heads-to-heads with Cairoli and fellow 350SX-F runner Max Nagl. The Frenchman, Frossard, would win but only after two laps of intense pressure by Cairoli who had admitted that he hadn’t been able to train after smashing his hand on a post in Portugal last week. In second moto, Frossard clashed with Rockstar Suzuki’s Clement Desalle and was buried outside of the top ten. Cairoli had no peer but Tanel Leok gave the Italian TM a landmark second place finish by a whisker from a surging Desalle and Philippaerts in fourth. Desalle was lucky to finish the first moto after tangling with green fencing and losing his rear brake. His flight from outside the top ten to beat the Yamaha on the last lap of Moto2 was arguably one of his best performances this term. It helped the Belgian hold onto the red plate (points lead) by the width of a Rockstar decal.
The closing circulations of MX1 were tight and tense and whipped up excitement in the crowd. The MX2 races were staid in comparison as Roczen brushed aside rib pain and dented morale to go 1-1 for the third time in 2011. “I really didn’t know how it would be because I had a lot of pain in the warm-up,” said the German who had been swapping between victory and eating dirt in the last three rounds. “I took the holeshot, made no mistakes and that first win gave me a lot of confidence to go out and do the same in the second moto. The goal was to finish without crashing and I hope now that the bad luck has gone.”
“I don’t think I have been over the limit,” he added regarding his recent spills and contrary to what many believed “it just seems like one minute I’m there and the next on the ground.”
Roczen took back the MX2 points lead from Herlings with his win in Spain.
Photo: Ray Archer
Searle was 2-2 with Paulin 4-3 and still unable to contemplate a holeshot. Jeffrey Herlings was nothing more than consistent for fourth and had to surrender his red plate back to Roczen. Arnaud Tonus continues to show why he is topping many people’s enquiries for MX2 duty in 2012 in fifth and Bike it Cosworth Wild Wolf Yamaha team-mate Zach Osborne had his first low day of the season with two falls and a DNF followed by a low-key run to sixth. “It was worse than mediocre,” he confessed after slipping from fourth to fifth in the MX2 championship table. “It was a big disappointment because this is the home race for our main sponsor Wild Wolf and I wanted to put on a good show and it just didn’t happen. The bike wasn’t right in the first race. I made two small crashes but if things had been going well then I wouldn’t have been in those situations to crash. In the second race it was sort of the same; not really pulling. I did what I could to finish sixth.”
There was plenty of talk about Christophe Pourcel but it seems there are a few complications with contracts in the U.S. and it could be at least two grands prix before the former champion is back in Europe.
The series has a respite after rounds in France, Portugal and Spain in the last three weeks. After the break and into July another three races lie in store, this time across the north of the continent in Sweden (hard-pack), Germany (hard-pack) and Latvia (loam).
One point seperates Cairoli and Desalle in the MX1 class.
Photo: Ray Archer
MX1 Moto1
1. Steven Frossard (FRA, Yamaha), 39:48.680;
2. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:00.632;
3. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), +0:04.248;
4. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), +0:06.261;
5. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), +0:32.066;
6. Steve Ramon (BEL, Suzuki), +0:33.997;
7. Rui Goncalves (POR, Honda), +0:34.968;
8. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:37.779;
9. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, Kawasaki), +0:38.369;
10. Xavier Boog (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:39.561;
MX1 Moto2
1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 39:30.932;
2. Tanel Leok (EST, TM), +0:05.264;
3. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), +0:05.326;
4. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), +0:07.147;
5. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, Kawasaki), +0:11.141;
6. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), +0:16.194;
7. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:32.159;
8. Xavier Boog (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:39.202;
9. Steven Frossard (FRA, Yamaha), +0:47.336;
10. Rui Goncalves (POR, Honda), +0:49.623;
MX1 Overall result
1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 47 points;
2. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), 38 p.;
3. Steven Frossard (FRA, Yamaha), 37 p.;
4. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), 36 p.;
5. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), 33 p.;
6. Tanel Leok (EST, TM), 30 p.;
7. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, Kawasaki), 28 p.;
8. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), 27 p.;
9. Rui Goncalves (POR, Honda), 25 p.;
10. Xavier Boog (FRA, Kawasaki), 24 p.
MX1 World Championship standings after 7 of 15 rounds
1. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), 285 points;
2. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 284 p.;
3. Steven Frossard (FRA, Yamaha), 250 p.;
4. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), 225 p.;
5. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), 204 p.;
6. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), 199 p.;
7. Rui Goncalves (POR, Honda), 192 p.;
8. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, Kawasaki), 164 p.;
9. Xavier Boog (FRA, Kawasaki), 161 p.;
10. Steve Ramon (BEL, Suzuki), 149 p.;
MX2 Moto1
1. Ken Roczen (GER, KTM), 38:42.572; ;
2. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +0:03.076;
3. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:28.147;
4. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Yamaha), +0:36.729;
5. Nicolas Aubin (FRA, KTM), +0:50.104;
6. Arnaud Tonus (SUI, Yamaha), +0:59.626;
7. Joel Roelants (BEL, KTM), +1:13.299;
8. Nick Triest (BEL, KTM), +1:28.888;
9. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Yamaha), +1:31.106;
10. Harri Kullas (FIN, Yamaha), +1:33.652;
MX2 Moto2
1. Ken Roczen (GER, KTM), 39:36.830; ;
2. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +0:10.524;
3. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Yamaha), +0:14.845;
4. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:20.214;
5. Arnaud Tonus (SUI, Yamaha), +0:22.245;
6. Zachary Osborne (USA, Yamaha), +0:52.604;
7. Joel Roelants (BEL, KTM), +0:53.458;
8. Nicolas Aubin (FRA, KTM), +1:07.047;
9. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Yamaha), +1:20.234;
10. Harri Kullas (FIN, Yamaha), +1:29.358;
MX2 Overall result
1. Ken Roczen (GER, KTM), 50 points;
2. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), 44 p.;
3. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Yamaha), 38 p.;
4. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 38 p.;
5. Arnaud Tonus (SUI, Yamaha), 31 p.;
6. Nicolas Aubin (FRA, KTM), 29 p.;
7. Joel Roelants (BEL, KTM), 28 p.;
8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Yamaha), 24 p.;
9. Harri Kullas (FIN, Yamaha), 22 p.;
10. Nick Triest (BEL, KTM), 19 p.;
MX2 World Championship standings after 7 of 15 rounds
1. Ken Roczen (GER, KTM), 301 points;2. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 295 p.;
3. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), 268 p.;
4. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Yamaha), 234 p.;
5. Zachary Osborne (USA, Yamaha), 213 p.;
6. Arnaud Tonus (SUI, Yamaha), 197 p.;
7. Max Anstie (GBR, Kawasaki), 167 p.;
8. Joel Roelants (BEL, KTM), 166 p.;
9. Harri Kullas (FIN, Yamaha), 164 p.;
10. Nicolas Aubin (FRA, KTM), 151 p.;
