9MM Energy Drink BUD Racing Kawasaki’s Quentin Prugnières ended the FIM European EMX250 Championship fifth after taking his second podium of the campaign at St Jean D’Angely in France.
The French teenager had already impressed in the first moto on Saturday afternoon as he swept up the leaderboard from eleventh on lap one to finish third, and, to the delight of his home-country crowd, he earns his second overall podium of the series with another fantastic ride in Sunday morning’s race two. Closed down by his neighbours at the gate at the start he was way down in twenty-second position the first time past the timekeepers but rode an enthralling opening lap, making no less than a dozen passes to move into the top ten. Maintaining the momentum he was fourth within twelve minutes, even temporarily taking over third, to not only secure the overall podium but also jump from seventh to a final fifth in the series points standings. With eight top five finishes in the last fourteen races, three race podiums in the last three events contested and two podiums, Quentin confirmed all the expectations placed in him by Stephane Dasse and Thierry Van Den Bosch and he will now be able to take a break.
BUD teammate Eddie Wade crashed during practice and did not start.
Quentin Prugnières: “It’s a nice podium in front of the French fans, but I really had to work for it after a bad start. I wasn’t able to keep my rhythm after I reached third position, but the priority was to end the season with a good result which lifted me to fifth in the standings. The beginning of season did not go as planned, but I have proved that I am a podium contender in recent races. I want to thank all the people around me in the BUD team, my family and our mechanics and I am almost lost for words to describe my feeling after this podium in my home country. I really wanted to finish the season with a podium, and now we’ll take a break before getting back working to prepare for next season; the plan is to race the EMX250 again and also some GPs.“
