Offroad
De Reuver best Honda rider at Sevlievo
12 maggio 2008
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Dutchman Marc De Reuver was Honda’s strongest performer in MX1 taking fifth place overall riding his factory CRF450. The Honda Martin Racing rider scored a fine third place in moto one to take his maiden MX1 podium appearance of the year before backing that up with a solid second moto fifth. De Reuver’s team-mate Julien Bill and CAS Honda’s Billy MacKenzie were also able to race their Hondas to top-10 finishes while American CAS Honda rider Mike Brown just missed out in 12th place overall. Sebastien Pourcel took pole position during Saturday’s qualifying session with a time of 1:46:767 while MacKenzie was best Honda rider in fifth, De Reuver was 10th, Bill 12th and Brown a disappointing – by his standards – 22nd place some 3.571 seconds down on the French pole sitter. Sunday’s moto one saw Billy MacKenzie and MX1 series leader Philippaerts exit turn one side by side but the Italian edged into the lead before turn two allowing MacKenzie to watch his lines and bide his time as he waited to attack the leader. But rather than being the aggressor MacKenzie found himself hunted down by De Reuver who moved into second as arm pump forced the Scotsman to spiral down to 15th by the race’s end. De Reuver held the pace of the leader until he too lost his rhythm mid-race allowing Spaniard Jonathan Barragan by and into the runner-up position. De Reuver hung tough for third to secure his maiden MX1 podium of the year. Swiss Honda Martin Racing rider Julien Bill also scored by far his finest performance of the year so far with a hard fought for sixth place after he battled through the pack from ninth. CAS Honda’s Mike Brown suffered similarly to his team-mate with arm pump but was able to tough it out to 12th. After a heavy half hour shower between races, track conditions were much slicker for moto two which was led by Barragan until he crashed on the very last lap allowing Pourcel to steal victory. De Reuver and MacKenzie were Honda’s best performers this time in fifth and sixth while Bill and Brown also navigated inside the top-10 with eighth and 10th place finishes. Barragan’s mistake not only lost the overall win for the Spaniard as it also knocked De Reuver from third to fifth in the final standings. Despite suffering his worst result of the year in moto one MacKenzie stays as Honda’s leading rider in the MX1 championship in fourth place now 49 points behind the leader. De Reuver jumps up to ninth, Brown rises to 11th and Bill also climbs to 16th. Honda scored their first Motocross World Championship podium of the year with 17-year-old American female rider Ashley Fiolek who scored third overall on an LS Motorsport CRF250 in the opening round of the five-event Women’s World Championship. Fiolek finished behind Livia Lancelot and Maria Franke but ahead of the reigning Women’s World Cup champion Katherine Prumm on her way to third in her debut in World Championship competition. The FIM Motocross World Championship continues next weekend in Mantova with the Grand Prix of Italy on May 18. Roger Harvey – Honda Off-Road coordinator “It was good to see Marc De Reuver running the pace we know he is capable of and him finishing third in moto one on a circuit that probably doesn’t suit him too well – with it being hardpack – is excellent. He was very unlucky not to score his first podium of the year – coming into the last lap he was third overall but when Barragan crashed he dropped to fifth – so I’m quite disappointed for Marc and the Martin team because it would be nice to see him on the podium. “The rate at which Billy MacKenzie dropped off the pace due to arm pump in moto one was quite disappointing. It’s sort of understandable a circuit like this with there being so many big hills and it’s also very fast in between. Of course it’s the same for everybody and it’s a shamehe could do no better than 15th. The second moto was slightly better for Billy, he felt his arm pump coming and just had to back it off a bit. “Mike Brown also suffered with arm pump today – he’s suffered badly with it before so we could almost expect it – but he still rode quite well and got a great start in moto two from a gate where he was at a big disadvantage. |
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