Round number thirteen of the fifteen round FIM Motocross World Championship series headed to Winchester, England for the Grand Prix of Great Britain at Matterly Basin. The riders were met with perfect weather, a beautifully crafted circuit and an incredibly vocal English crowd on Sunday, and they treated the fans to some world-class motocross racing.
Coming into round thirteen, the MX1 Championship has been dominated at the top of the points standing by Red Bull/Teka/KTM rider Antonio Cairoli, and all he needs to do is stay healthy to win his third-straight MX1 World Championship. With three rounds left to run, Cairoli has eighty-one points over his nearest active competitor, Monster Energy/Yamaha’s Steven Frossard, so we didn’t expect to see Cairoli putting everything on the line to win at Matterly Basin. With that being the case, the door would be wide open for guys like Christophe Pourcel, Honda World’s Rui Goncalvesand Frossard to step up and get a GP win.
MX1 – Moto 1
In the first moto of MX1, it was a repeat of Saturday qualifying with Steven Frossard getting out to the early lead and being hunted by CLS/Monster/Kawasaki’s Christophe Pourcel. The two Frenchmen decided to have it out one-on-one and took off from the rest of the field. For the first 30 minutes, the two stayed within a couple of seconds of one another, and just when it looked like a French on French war would breakout, Frossard made a race-deciding mistake. While under an increasing amount of pressure from Pourcel, Frossard stalled his Yamaha, and that was the end of their battle. Pourcel would walk it home from there and take his first MX1 GP moto win of 2011 on the 450. With the gap that the two had built up, Frossard would easily get his Yamaha re-fired and maintain second position to the flag.
Behind the two Frenchman in third was Antonio Cairoli. After a start that left him outside the top ten, he rode a smooth and calculated race that got him the maximum points while staying upright for the Championship. With an eighty-one point advantage in the Championship, Cairoli is just looking to stay healthy and secure his fifth World title. Behind Cairoli in fourth and fifth were TM’s Tanel Leok and Red Bull/Teka/KTM’s Max Nagl. Leok rode a very solid moto one, and after being passed by Cairoli, he kept the red plate holder right in front of him all the way to the checkered flag. Nagl, suffering from back pain, has been struggling, but in moto one at Matterly, he looked strong for the whole forty minutes.
MX1 Race 1 results – Matterly Basin
1 377 Pourcel, Christophe FRA FFM Kawasaki 2 183 Frossard, Steven FRA FFM Yamaha 3 222 Cairoli, Antonio ITA FMI KTM 4 6 Leok, Tanel EST EMF TM 5 2 Nagl, Maximilian GER DMSB KTM 6 999 Goncalves, Rui POR FMP Honda 7 12 Mackenzie, Billy GBR ACU Kawasaki 8 39 Guarneri, Davide ITA FMI Kawasaki 9 54 Anderson, Brad GBR ACU Honda 10 10 Boissiere, Anthony FRA FFM Yamaha
MX1 – Moto 2
When the gate dropped for the final moto of the day, it was a local Brit with the number twenty-four jumping out of the gate first and grabbing the early lead. LS Motors/Honda’s Shaun Simpson was loving the home GP vibe and attacking the Matterly cicuit early on, but he was overtaken by the two Frenchmen that finished 1-2 in moto one. At this point, Frossard and Pourcel looked poised to have a repeat battle of moto one, but that all ended when Pourcel came up short on a jump and went down hard. He tried to remount, but went down again and headed back to the pits with a DNF.
Ten minutes into moto two, everything would go bad for two riders and cause the race to come to an unexpected early end. While Tanel Leok and Billy MacKenzie were battling near the top five, the two came together in a violent crash that ended in a red flag situation. Billy went to jump an uphill quad, but Tanel Leok–directly in front of him–did not, and Billy landed on the back of Tanel. The result was a spectacular crash that sent Billy to the hospital and ended Leok’s day. The word is that Leok had tire marks up his back and decided to call it a day. Billy Mac is said to have feeling, but is being thoroughly checked out at the hospital after complaining of neck pain. Reports also say that he sustained no broken bones.
Red flags are always good for some and bad for others. In this situation, it was very bad for Frossard but great for Pourcel, who was well on his way to a second moto DNF. Pourcel was able to restart, and the number 377 rounded turn one in second position. Another rider benefiting from the restart was Antonio Cairoli. Before the red flag, Cairoli had been buried back in the pack somewhere around tenth, but after he holeshotted the restart, all was good in the Italian’s world. Meanwhile, Frossard went from leading moto 2 with Pourcel out and Antonio buried to being behind both of them.
Cairoli was up front looking like a completely different rider than he was in moto one. With the clear track ahead of him, he rode a perfect forty minute moto and made walking away from some of the fastest men in the world look easy. Behind Antonio, Frossard was able to find a way around Pourcel for second position, but was never able to make any time on Cairoli for the lead. Pourcel, once passed by, Frossard tried to keep his fellow countryman close, but in the end, Frossard was able to get away. The finishing order up front at the end of moto two was exactly the opposite of moto one with Cairoli taking the win followed by Frossard and Pourcel. The overall win went to Cairoli with Pourcel and Frossard finishing second and third.
Rounding out the top five in moto two were Kawasaki’s Jonathan Barragan in fourth and Red Bull/Teka/KTM’s Max Nagl in fifth. Barragan has struggled in 2011 on the Kawasaki, so it was nice to see the Spaniard race forward from a seventh place start to finish fourth. Nagl also came forward for most of moto two after a not-so-great start. Max, with a 5-5 score on the day, came away with a fourth overall. The man with fifth overall on the day was the top scoring local. British MX Champion and British MX hero Brad Anderson was recently selected for the Motocross of Nation, so the fact that he finished as the top Brit made the selection committee look good.
As the series now heads into the final two rounds, the Championship is a lock to go once again to Antonio Cairoli. The Italian heads to Gaildorf only needing two points to clinch the title. This will be the fifth World title for Tony, and you can be sure it will cement his name as one of the best FIM World Champions in history.
Next stop Gaildorf!s
MX1 Overall Results – GP of Great Britain – Matterly Basin
1 222 Cairoli, Antonio ITA FMI KTM 20 25 45 2 377 Pourcel, Christophe FRA FFM Kaw 25 20 45 3 183 Frossard, Steven FRA FFM Yam 22 22 44 4 2 Nagl, Maximilian GER DMSB KTM 16 16 32 5 54 Anderson, Brad GBR ACU Hon 12 14 26 6 7 Barragan, Jonathan ESP RFME Kaw 7 18 25 7 10 Boissiere, Anthony FRA FFM Yam 11 12 23 8 39 Guarneri, Davide ITA FMI Kaw 13 10 23 9 999 Goncalves, Rui POR FMP Hon 15 7 22 10 115 Campano Jimenez, Carlos ESP RFME Yam 6 15 21
For full results from Matterly Basin click here.
Updated points MX1 after 13 of 15 rounds
Pos Nr Rider Nat. Total 1 222 Cairoli, A. ITA 554 2 183 Frossard, S. FRA 472 3 25 Desalle, C. BEL 461 4 2 Nagl, Max GER 410 5 777 Bobryshev, E RUS 387 6 999 Goncalves, R POR 371 7 19 Philippaerts, D ITA 308 8 7 Barragan, J ESP 279 9 121 Boog, X FRA 272 10 9 deDycker, K BEL 254
