For his seventh appearance at Namur, a place he started to discover on a small bicycle when his father was still a rider, Stefan Everts clinched another success and joined fellow countryman Roger De Coster in the history books of the race. Despite a mistake in the first heat Everts stamped his mark on the event, coming back from 8th to 2nd and then winning the second heat to obtain his third victory of the season. None of his rivals were able to trouble him this weekend, even if his team-mate Brian Jorgensen twice grabbed the holeshot; the Danish rider confirmed after his crash in Portugal that he was back to his best, winning the first moto and finishing second overall behind Everts. Third position went to Ben Townley, who completed the second race close to Everts but never found a good rhythm in the opening sprint. Twice fourth, Mickael Pichon fluffed both starts and couldn’t take any advantage of his 14th consecutive pole position, while young Belgian Marvin Van Daele collected his first ever podium with a third place in the first heat.
Andrew McFarlane won the second GP of his career in the MX2 class, after two consistent races. Third and second, the Australian rider beat Britain’s Stephen Sword, who won the second moto despite a crash within the last laps. Winner of the first heat Italian Antonio Cairoli crashed in the following race and retired, while Belgian Cedric Melotte clinched a podium result despite two bad starts on his home track. The surprising David Philippaerts got a brilliant second spot aboard his 125 KTM in the first race but then, like his countryman Cairoli, crashed and retired in the next moto, and Mickael Maschio lost a sure-fire podium result when his rear brake failed in the second race.
Stefan Everts. “I’m so happy when I think of the first moto I did, with the passing in the downhill, on each lap. As soon as I figured out where I could do it, then I knew that I would overtake all the riders there; it’s a great feeling and that was even better than winning the overall! I tried so hard at the beginning of the race to make ground, I made some mistakes and then I found this spot to catch everybody except Jorgensen. In the second race I managed to start in second and then immediately passed Brian to lead, and finally win for the 7th time in a row here. I equalled Roger De Coster’s record and I took my 82nd GP win; that’s a great day for me and I feel even better than a year ago.”
Andrew McFarlane. “The first GP’s were not so successful for me, I was unlucky and when I came here I was expecting a good result, like a real start for the championship. I worked really hard in the week to prepare this race, on such a technical and difficult circuit. I just put my head down to get good start; I finished third in the first heat, I would prefer to finish first or second but it was important to take points for the championship. In the second moto I had a good and pretty aggressive start, I led the race but Stephen Sword was pushing really hard and he passed me just before the difficult uphill. I had to let him go, because we could have crashed together and once more I was thinking to the points. Unfortunately when Sword made a mistake with two laps to go I lost five seconds behind a lapped rider, otherwise I would have won the moto. Anyway I took the GP and came from 7th to 5th in the championship, I will be more hungry next week in Teutschenthal.”
Information and results on www.motocrossmx1.com, the official website of the Motocross World Championships.
