Clement Desalle shines in PortugalRound 7 of the FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship at Agueda, Portugal.MX1 Christophe Pourcel (CP377 Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) led the opening lap of race one but soon realized that Clement Desalle (Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MX1) was in no mood to play as the Belgian took the lead on lap two, to go on and record his first race win of the season. Pourcel was second while Antonio Cairoli (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) took third after making a small mistake that briefly dropped him from third to fifth. Gautier Paulin (Kawasaki Racing Team) secured a lonely fourth as Ken De Dycker (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) took fifth after starting eighth on lap one. Home rider Rui Goncalves (Honda World MX1) could only manage fourteenth. The second race saw the best racing and the most dramatic finish of the year so far. Once again, Christophe Pourcel found himself leading and this time managed to hold on for almost half the race but then dropped to fourth in two laps as Clement Desalle, Gautier Paulin and Antonio Cairoli all stormed through. Desalle led for four laps, but then he too was re-taken by Paulin and Cairoli and for the next seven laps they were wheel-to-wheel. With two laps to go Paulin had a big moment in the first wave section that almost saw him crash, and he lost time to Cairoli as a result who almost made the pass stick on the next uphill, only to be denied by Paulin. The final lap was intense and as they crossed the finish line the victory belonged to Paulin by 0.484 of a second from Cairoli. Desalle finished third but this was good enough to win the GP (1-3) from Paulin (4-1) and Cairoli (3-2). MX2 In race one Jeffrey Herlings led every one of the nineteen laps from his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team-mate Jeremy Van Horebeek in what were difficult conditions due to persistent rain, as Tommy Searle (Floride Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) came home third after starting outside the top seven. Jordi Tixier scored his best result in MX2 with fourth, while Valentin Teillet (Bud Racing Rockstar Kawasaki) rounded out the top five. On a fast drying circuit race two was a much more interesting affair as the two leaders of MX2 Herlings and Searle fought wheel to wheel for nineteen of the twenty-one laps, until a mistake from Herlings allowed Searle to take the lead and the eventual race win. Max Anstie (Gariboldi Honda – Esta) took his first podium of the season with a solid third, while Dylan Ferrandis (Bud Racing Rockstar Kawasaki) and Jake Nicholls (Nestaan JM Racing KTM) rounded out the top five. Herlings won the overall GP (1-2) from Tommy Searle (3-1) and Van Horebeek (2-6).  |