Grand Prix Kawasaki Racing’s Sébastien Pourcel won his third heat of the year in Mantova and for the third time in a row he reached the podium with a second position overall in the Grand Prix of Italy
The weather was not as sunny as expected this weekend in Mantova and this event was run under cloudy and sometimes rainy conditions, which affected the circuit. Sébastien didn’t feel confident on Saturday and his run of pole positions was interrupted as he finished the timed session in seventh place.
It rained during the night but the track was pretty well prepared for the first race where Sébastien had a great start. Leading the pack from the first lap he did a perfect race, winning his third heat of the season with a strong advantage over De Dycker.
The rain fell again during the MX2 podium ceremony just before the start of the MX1 race and Seb had a bad start in around 10th place. By the end of the first lap he was fifth but struggled on this slippery track and was unable to hold off De Reuver, MacKenzie or De Dycker. He finally finished sixth missing the GP win by a single point!
Sebastien’s teammate Alexandre Rouis qualified for the first time in his career and finished the first race in 25th position and retired in the last race due to a broken chain.
Three seconds faster than her rivals during the qualifying session, Livia Lancelot wasn’t as strong on Sunday. Coming to the lead after four circulations of the opening race Livia stalled her engine in a corner and lost six places. Sixth in the first race she made a similar mistake in the next one and lost her second place finally finishing third behind Laier and Prumm. Missing the podium by a single point Livia is still leading the series by two points ahead of reigning Women’s champion Katherine Prumm.
Sébastien Pourcel:
“Last year I scored my first MX1 GP podium here and for sure it’s good to be back on the podium here today. But I’m not happy as I also need to score as many points as possible as the first two GPs were not good for me and this weekend it was possible to win. The first moto was good, I had my best start of the season and then pushed to increase the gap on De Dycker.
“I am unhappy with the second race, I made too many mistakes and nearly crashed five or six times. I didn’t feel confident for this heat, the same feeling as during the qualification session on Saturday. The track was difficult with many ruts and also some jumps were pretty dangerous as we saw with the big crash of Barragan. Next week I will go to the French Championship in Villars sous Ecot knowing that will be another good practice session before the British GP.”
Livia Lancelot:
“I had a good feeling with the track on Saturday and posted a fast lap to take the pole position. Today was different, my start was not so great but I passed Steffi Laier for the lead then I made a mistake and stalled the engine. I had some troubles to start the bike again and came back to fifth right behind my main rivals.
“My second start was better, I came second behind Laier but she was faster. Then I battled with Katherine Prumm, I was in second position when I made the same mistake and stalled the engine for the third time this weekend. That never happened since I started training in March so I guess I probably made some mistakes with the brake pedal. But I keep the red plate and I will have it for the French GP - that’s good for the fans even if my goal is of course to keep it for the entire season.”
Alexandre Rouis:
“On Saturday I had a big crash during the first free practice session and I was scared for the qualifying session but I posted the 28th lap time and got my first ever qualification. I missed getting a good start in moto one and so I concentrated on my own race with a lot of pain in my body due to my crash on Saturday. My second start was better but the chain broke during the first lap and I had to retire.”
Patrick Geladé:
“Sébastien was excellent in the first heat, he was easy on the bike and got an important win. When the rain fell before the second moto we knew that it would be different, like it was during the qualifying session. But he finished second overall and that’s a good result, he is coming back in the standings with three podiums in a row.
“We were happy with the qualification of Alex Rouis, it was important for him and also his mechanic as both work hard and I hope that now he will be stronger on Saturday.
“Concerning Livia she missed a good opportunity to make a break in the championship - she made several mistakes which cost her the podium but she is still leading the series before the French GP in one month’s time.”
Roger Pourcel:
“I was not expecting so good results from Sébastien when I saw the track. He wasn’t confident on the bike during the practice sessions but this morning he had a better feeling during the warm-up. He had a great start in the first race and then increased his gap each lap to easily win the race. The track was wet for the next heat and he made several mistakes, he was pushing too hard and lost some positions but he got a podium and that’s great. He is consistent since Portugal and there are still 10 GPs to go so everything is possible.
“Alexandre Rouis qualified for the first time of his career and everyone in the team was happy for him as he works hard. The first race was difficult for him but he finished it, then in the second the chain broke and we must see why as it’s the first time we had such problem. Livia was faster than her rivals on Saturday but she was stressed on Sunday for the race. She did well in the first race as she came to the lead but she lost too much time when she stalled the engine. Her start was worse for the second race, then she made the same mistake but lost less time and only missed the podium by a single point.”
