“Without the European riders, the bumps are much faster and safer for us,” said the returning Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna rider Max Nagl, who managed to take pole position on Saturday but admitted he was lacking fitness after just five days of riding in recovery from a broken ankle in June.

“The track is unbelievably good. It has been prepared well by being ripped and watered, and there are three or four lines every corner,” the German added. 

A slightly more laidback Grand Prix then, but the injury list continued to thrive. Rockstar Suzuki found themselves without a rider on full works machinery, as a heavy landing by Kevin Strijbos on Saturday led to a broken right thumb ligament and ended the Belgian’s season (that’s also a blow to the Belgian Motocross of Nations effort). With Clement Desalle recovering from an injured shoulder, Glenn Coldenhoff was the only Suzuki rider, and the Dutchman—who is rumoured to be on his way to Red Bull KTM for 2016—placed sixth overall on Sunday. MX2 World Champion Jordi Tixier crashed and dislocated his right wrist and also, painfully, waved goodbye to 2015. The Frenchman’s imminent operation reduced the list of contenders in MX2. Then there was the mistake and fall from Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Steven Frossard in the opening phases of the MXGP moto that required the Motocross of Nations winner to be helicoptered from the circuit for an alleged procedure on a fractured vertebra. 

The search and anguish over the attrition level of MXGP go on with fingers pointed at the bikes, the tracks and even the riders Some regulatory action is coming in the near future, but where it will be directed is anybody’s guess. Tixier crashed on a 250, not a 450. Mantova was not battered by countless sessions on the track and a lack of maintenance time or resources. That leaves the riders then, and who is going to tell an ambitious and dedicated athlete not to push the envelope? This one will rumble on, but there is a desire to find some sort of fix.

Someone comfortably edging boundaries is Febvre. The 23-year-old has barely shown a sign of weakness for four months, and his dispatch of Evgeny Bobryshev (back on the podium for the third time this year and still capable of demoting teammate Paulin, who again failed to shine while also failing to totally drop the ball) in the first moto was swift. In the second race, he sprinted clear of teammate Jeremy Van Horebeek to head a Yamaha 1-2 for the second time this season. 

“We are getting close now to the end [of the season] and the title can be won next weekend,” he smiled. “We will see. I think next weekend will be even sandier and it will be easy to make a mistake. We need to stay on two wheels and keep pushing.” 

Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM’s Shaun Simpson was given a works 2016 450SX-F to substitute the ’15 model he had been using thanks to his progress this season, led by the GP win at Lommel and decent showing in New York at the Unadilla National. There were plenty of bikes to spare, with Red Bull KTM decimated through injury and just one of their six-rider roster in action across both classes. The Scot had just recovered from illness coming into the round, and it caught him in the first moto where he tired in the last two laps and was passed by Van Horebeek and Paulin. He was dogged in the second outing, however, and took a decent third position on a bike he’s barely ridden while dealing with attention from Bobryshev, Nagl, Coldenhoff, and Paulin. Simpson’s fourth overall was good enough for top five in the MXGP championship standings, and with Tony Cairoli likely to miss the coming two meetings and only return for Glen Helen, the British Champion is just 25 points from a lofty fourth. Simpson gained fifth and a few more points over Nagl thanks to the German’s last-lap fall in the second moto that bumped him from fifth to tenth.

In MX2, Anstie was as resolute as Febvre—only a brief first-moto fall blotting his day—but a deeper story in the competition involved Red Bull KTM’s Pauls Jonass (aping teammate Jeffrey Herlings in the best way by leading the championship at the age of 18 in just his first term as a works rider and full-time in MX2) and HRC Gariboldi’s Tim Gajser. The latter enjoyed some noisy support from a large Italian fan club and a hoard of Slovenians that dropped down across the border to cheer on #243. The teenagers sandwiched Anstie on the box and kept the distance between each other to 4 points, scratching another event from the list and cranking up the tension a notch further. Jonass was consistent, Gajser attacking after also crashing like Anstie and suffering a bad start in the second moto.