Darian Sanayei scored an emphatic double victory for Bud Racing Monster Energy Kawasaki in the French round of the FIM European MX250 Motocross Championship at St Jean D’Angely. For the team who lined up five riders, it was also a great opportunity to welcome partners and fans.
The young American, faced with the need to learn a new circuit at every round, qualified eighth and made a solid start to the opening moto in third position before quickly taking the lead on lap three and moving relentlessly away from his chasers for a nine second victory. Another good start in race two saw him initially second before taking the lead already on the opening lap for another convincing win, again nine seconds clear of his closest rival. The fifty point maximum score for his first ever series victory has seen Darian advance to second in the series standings.
Teammate Nicolas Dercourt also made his best result of the series so far when he took fourth overall from 4-6 moto finishes, missing the podium by just one point. The French youngster twice had to charge up the leaderboard from moderate starts; in the first moto he advanced from eighth to fourth and in the second race he converted an initial eighth into sixth place. Nicolas is now eighth in the series standings.
In the European 125 class Brian Moreau qualified with the second fastest lap of his group, while Kim Savaste had to go through the last chance race to qualify. Brian missed his start in the first heat and fight hard to pass many riders to finally get a seventh position, but he crashed at the start of the second race and had to come back from far last to fifteenth; tenth overall, he’s also tenth in the series. From the outside gate Kim had more troubles at the start, and had twice to come back from very far; he retired with a technical issue in the first race but then came back eighth in the second heat.
Sixteen and fourteen of the practice session, Xavier Boog rode the MXGP class and had to come back from eighteenth to fifteenth in the first race, he didn’t had time to improve his result in the second heat as he damaged one radiator in a crash with another rider after three laps.
Even if the World and European Championships have a break next weekend, the team will be in Ernée for the penultimate round of the French Series.
Darian Sanayei: “It was good. The track was really nice, just some stones, so my goal was to take some good starts so I wouldn’t get too much stones in my face. I was third at the start of the first race and I had some difficulties with my hand guard touching the clutch but with the track conditions that wasn’t such a problem; it just made me ride smoother. I nearly got the holeshot in the second moto. I was second and took the lead at the second or third corner; after that I just tried to ride my own race, to stay strong and make a gap to my rivals. I rode this track a few weeks ago and, even if the conditions were totally different, I think that helped me to get a good qualifying result. I’m used to discovering new tracks, but at least I knew the track layout here, and it will be similar in the UK as I raced there last year. It was awesome to hear the national anthem; it was my goal to win some races here in Europe this season.”
Nicolas Dercourt: “ It was a good weekend for me, as I got my best overall result of the year with a fourth position overall. I had the eleventh gate pick but missed a good start in the first race; I rode a good opening lap to move to eighth, and then found a good rhythm to advance to fourth at the finish. My second moto was pretty similar, as I moved forward from eighth to sixth and just missed the podium by one point.”
Brian Moreau: “I was expecting a lot from this GP, trained hard so of course I’m disappointed with the results. In the first heat I was around twentieth at the start and came back seventh, the track was really rough and slippery; then in the second heat Geerts took my front wheel on the starting line and I crashed. I was last and came back fifteenth, it’s a learning year for me!”
Kim Savaste: “On Saturday I can’t explain why I didn’t qualified in the series, and I was upset to go to the last chance race to qualify. I won it and get used to the track; in the first race my start from the outside was not so good but I came back from twenty first to eleventh when i bent my chain guide in a rut and my chain came off with four laps to go. Then in the second race I didn’t got a good start but my riding was better and I came back eighth.”
Xavier Boog: “I’m happy to finish this French GP on my foot, as I got injured in the last two editions and that was somewhere in my mind! I was expecting better results, but without a good start now it’s nearly impossible to enter the top twelve. In the second race I had a good rhythm but I crashed with another rider and damaged the bike, my race was finished. It was a good practice before the Elite round in Ernée, we are not used now to have a full weekend of racing as the French Motocross and Supercross races are a one day event.”
