Heavy overnight rain had made conditions treacherous but Pourcel was in superb form, winning the opening race by nearly a minute and a half despite slackening his pace in the final laps. He again took the lead in the second moto, but a couple of incidents as he caught up to lap the tail-enders cost him the race win; however a 1-4 scoreline in the two motos was more than enough to clinch overall honours on the day and move Christophe up to third place in the series.

Gautier Paulin of the Kawasaki Racing Team narrowly missed joining Pourcel on the podium after two solid races to third and fifth. A single error in the early stages of race two cost him several places and he was eventually edged out of third place overall only on the tie-break, but he closed his deficit on the series leader by 11 points.

It was an historic day for Paulin's teammate Xavier Boog as the 24 year old recorded his first-ever race victory in the MX1 world series, taking the lead from Pourcel halfway through the second race and repelling the challenges of Pourcel and two other riders to the chequered flag. Sebastien Pourcel had an unfortunate day, missing the points in both motos after a string of riding errors.

Christophe Pourcel: “It's never easy in conditions like these, but my Kawasaki KX450F gave me a great start in both races and the first moto was unbelievable. I didn't feel I was riding super fast, but after only a few laps my mechanic boarded me that I was a minute in front. In the second race I made a few mistakes with the lappers. I was planning to repass Boog in the closing laps; in the end it was me who made a couple of mistakes and I lost two places, but I knew I still had the overall win.”

Gautier Paulin: “The team worked hard this weekend, and I wanted to give them a podium but in the end I just missed it. I chose a middle gate and it worked well on Saturday but not so well in the mud on Sunday. I recovered to third in the first race, but in the second one I made a mistake in the second lap; I lost too much time and could only get back to fifth. It's great for the team and our prospects for the rest of the season that Xavier won his first GP moto today.”

Xavier Boog: “It’s a great feeling to win a GP moto for the first time! The last few laps seemed to last for ever as Desalle, Pourcel and Strijbos all challenged me, but my Kawasaki kept running perfectly and I could hold them off. The first race had been more difficult; I crashed twice and then stalled the motor.”


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