After claiming another pole position on Saturday at the last Grand Prix of the season in Faenza Sébastien Pourcel unfortunately posted his worst race results of the campaign with a double DNF in Italy.
Winning his first ever MX1 GP on this track last year, Grand Prix Kawasaki Racing’s Sébastien Pourcel was confident coming into Faenza. The hard soil looks like the tracks found in the South of France when it’s dry and on Saturday Seb was always among the fastest riders. He entered the qualifying session feeling optimistic and claimed another pole position – the first one aboard the fuel injection model and his fifth in 2008.
Seb discovered a wet layout on Sunday morning as it had rained hard during the night. The track conditions totally changed and even if the rain stopped early on it was on a muddy layout that the warm-up took place.
He started the opening race in second position behind Nagl and was chasing the German rider when he went out of the track at mid race and got some green fence in his rear wheel. It took three laps for his mechanics to repair the damage and his race was over but he did end the period with the best lap time secured in the last 10 minutes.
His second start was much worse but he only needed three laps to come back to sixth before crashing on the third lap. Another rider hit him and he came back in the race 15th before he crashed again two laps later and finally retired. The next race for Sébastien will be the Motocross of Nations where he will be part of the French team for the fourth time in his career.
Sébastien Pourcel:“On Saturday everything went perfectly. I had a good feeling with the track and I was proud to get the pole position aboard the fuel injection bike. It was a nice reward for the tough job that the Japanese engineers did with us during their stay here in Europe, we had a great cooperation and I enjoyed doing testing sessions with them.
“Unfortunately it rained last night and the track was much different for the races and I struggled with the settings of the bike. I was second in the first race when the bike had a strange reaction at the end of a big downhill, I couldn’t take the corner normally and I went into the green fences, then my back wheel was blocked and I had to stop in the pits.
“My second start was worse but I came back promptly to sixth position but I went over the bars on a jump and MacKenzie who was just behind me hit me. Then I had another small crash and I retired – I didn’t feel confident on the track anymore.”
Roger Pourcel:“We had a perfect Saturday, everything went as planned and Seb got another pole. Sunday was different, it rained during the night and it was not the same track for the races. We had some troubles with the settings of the bike but it was not possible to react and Seb didn’t feel so comfortable. Each time he wanted to increase his rhythm he had troubles – in the first race he made a small mistake and with so much green fence in the rear wheel it was impossible to continue. Then in the second race he took a bad start and during his comeback he crashed twice and then finally retired. Let’s hope that the Nation’s will be better for us.”
MX1 Moto 1: 1. Max Nagl (KTM - GER) 38:49.652
2. Ken De Dycker (Suzuki - BEL) +0:31.860
3. David Philippaerts (Yamaha - ITA) +0:35.891
4. Jonathan Barragan (KTM - ESP) +0:42.932
5. Billy MacKenzie (Honda - GB) +0:44.356
6. Marc De Reuver (Honda - NED) 0:45.365
7. Julien Bill (Honda - SUI) +0:46.998
8. Clement Desalle (Suzuki - BEL) +0:49.515
9. Marcus Schiffer (KTM - GER) +0:57.967
10. Josh Coppins (Yamaha - NZL) +1:00.552
11. Steve Ramon (Suzuki - BEL) +1:01.630
DNF - Sébastien Pourcel - KawasakiMX1 Moto 2: 1. Max Nagl (KTM - GER) 39:20.428
2. Steve Ramon (Suzuki - BEL) +0:05.714
3. Josh Coppins (Yamaha - NZL) +0:10.748
4. Jonathan Barragan (KTM - ESP) +0:13.861
5. Ken De Dycker (Suzuki - BEL) +0:15.936
6. Tanel Leok (Kawasaki - EST) +0:17.332
7. Clement Desalle (Suzuki - BEL) +0:48.880
8. Carlos Campano (Yamaha - ESP) +0:56.674
9. David Philippaerts (Yamaha - ITA) +0:57.303
10. Billy MacKenzie (Honda - GB) +0:57.990
DNF - Sébastien Pourcel - KawasakiMX1 standings after Faenza:1. David Philippaerts - Yamaha - 509
2. Steve Ramon - Suzuki - i495
3. Ken De Dycker - Suzuki - 490
4. Jonathan Barragan - KTM - 455
5. Joshua Coppins - Yamaha - 446
7. Sébastien Pourcel - Kawasaki - 39224. Kevin Strijbos - Kawasaki - 39More information: kawasaki-racingteam.eu
