Kawasaki Racing Team’s Tanel Leok, overcome his recent run of mediocre results to bounce back at the final round of the World Championship and end his season on a high note, the Estonian Express confirmed his fifth position in the world rankings after finishing second overall at the Grand Prix of France Sunday, the final race of the fifteen round world series.
Tanel was undeterred by bad weather on Saturday and qualified in sixth position with a lap time of 1:59.846 and an average lap speed of 46.92kmph. Torrential rain in the days leading up to the weekend, left the hillside circuit of Ernee, some 120kilometres west of Le Mans, deeply rutted and very slippery, but with an improved weather forecast for Sunday, Tanel was looking like the weather to reverse his fortunes. Team mate Bas Verhoeven struggled with the slippery conditions not getting a good feel for the circuit, he scraped in with a 28th which left him with little choice of starting positions from the thirty riders seeded through to Sunday;s two 35 minute plus two lap motos.
As predicted, weather was a vast improvement on Sunday with bright sunshine which quickly dried out the circuit. Best start for the Kawasaki Team was from Bas Verhoeven who was lying on third position for the opening laps, he avoided a fallen Mickael Pichon who fell directly in front of Tanel Leok causing him to loose ground as he took evasive action. Verhoeven stayed inside the top five for seven of the twenty one laps but then a heavy fall saw him slip back to 19th and fighting to stay on the pace and within the points. Leok who had started in 11th from the start quickly made up ground hammering his way around making at least one pass per lap and by lap ten was in 4th position with third place with Kevin Strijbos out in the distance. After a run of recent injuries Leok was content to hold on to finish fourth securing 18 points and save energy for race two. Verhoeven slipped back and finished a disappointing 21st just missing out by one position of the points.
Leok and Verhoeven were lying in 5th and 7th position during the opening laps of race two, Leok moved to fourth and then passed Strijbos to take third position behind leader Everts and second placed Coppins. Verhoeven was desperate to make amends for his frustrating race one result, he once again managed to pull off a remarkable feat by getting up to the front despite the long drag from one of the farthest starting gate position. The former Dutch Champion eventually finished in 11th position after suffering from fatigue in the closing laps.
Tanel Leok was assured second position overall from his pit signals, he too was starting to feel tired and feared a mistake might cost him a podium finished he brought home his factory KX450F-SR in third position to secure his fourth podium position of the year.
Tanel Leok: “I have had a frustrating season I came here to France unable to improve on 5th position in the Championship, I couldn’t get caught so my position was safe but my personal goal was to end the season on a high note. My shoulder hasn’t been too bad this week and although it was very slippery yesterday in qualification I was happy with my time, every lap was difficult, either because it was too slippery of a slower rider got in way. I took 6th position on the gate which was important as the start is very fast here so you need to get out in front before the first jump. In race one, I made a good reaction but was forced to slow when Pichon crashed right in front of me, I missed him but had to back off and a pile of riders passed me. I was 9th by the end of lap one and set about pushing hard right away, I passed one rider per lap and by lap six I was in 5th position behind Bas Verhoeven who I knew I pass, I saw him tuck in behind me trying to get a tow. I was up into 4th position it was possible to push on and catch up to pass Strijbos but I was comfortable at my speed, I wanted to try and save some energy for race two, the circuit was very bumping and it was going to be a tough final race of the championship.
I got a good drop from the gate but Everts and Coppins came together and they touched me, I had to back off, I had a major speed wobble on but held onto the bike and came out in fifth position, Barragan fell and I made up one position it too me several laps to close up on Strijbos then passed to go up into 3rd position. Coppins was ahead but I needed to conserve some energy, I knew from my pit signals that I was set for a podium position anyway, I rode to finish the race and secure second position overall. I achieved my goal this weekend, I ended the season on a high note, it has been a difficult year going suffering several injuries but now I want to continue this success through to next week.
Tuesday, this week I have a MRI san on my shoulder, I have been waiting a long time for this and it will determine if I need surgery to have it repaired, it will be a relief to know exactly what is wrong. We have the Motocross of Nations next weekend in England, I will ride for Estonia and then I will decide what to do, if I need surgery this might have to wait until we have returned from testing in Japan, this is scheduled for mid October.”
Bas Verhoeven: “Qualification didn’t go too well this weekend, I didn’t feel comfortable on the track – all the heavy rain made it very slippery and my feeling on the bike was not confident, we used the same bike set up as in previous weeks but still I was unsure. This left me qualifying in 28th position so I knew I would need good start but from the outside of the gate it was always going to be difficult. On Sunday morning in free practice I had the same feeling and was optimistic but when the gat dropped my reaction couldn’t have been better and I was in third position for two, maybe three laps, the pace was very fast and I was with the other guys, but then I was passed by Strijbos and Leok, I was happy behind Tanel as I knew I could follow his lines and he would help me but I made a mistake and crashed losing fourteen places. I was annoyed and completely lost my rhythm and finished 21st – outside of the points, it was disheartening.
I was really on my starts this weekend, I knew I had to get out of the gate because of where I was and again I made a great reaction, I ended lap on in sixth position and took advantage of gaining one position when Barragan fell, The pace was good, my speed was good and I settled down looking for a top ten finish. After twelve laps was starting to feel tired and fatigue set in I was slowed caught and passed and slipped from 6th to 11th at the chequered flag. I think I could have maybe hung out and fought harder but I would have risked crashing like race one, I wanted to bring the bike home and just rode safely to the end of the race.”
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