The Belgian tough-man won yet another Grand Prix and is now just 25
points behind defending champion and series favourite Antonio Cairoli.
Despite being in a strong position Desalle isn’t getting carried away
with his position in the series points.
"It is really difficult to know if it’s my best chance (to win the
world championship), maybe it is, but I don’t want to get crazy looking
at the overall championship, I just want to ride my bike and do the best
I can do.”
The Grand Prix of Italy proved to be a downer for the Suzuki rider,
and despite fighting back in Germany, he still thinks about the momentum
he lost in Maggiora.
"In Italy I didn’t have a good weekend. I had a big crash and hurt
myself. In Germany I hadn’t ridden my bike much because of my wrist and I
had pain in my wrist in the first practice.”
What he did enjoy though was the performance in Germany, when he clinched the GP victory at a circuit he often rides well.
"Sunday in Germany I was top three in the first moto and I passed the
second placed rider and Max was riding really well, but I couldn’t pass
him. In the first moto I didn’t think if Max would get tired or not. He
is a very professional rider and I knew when he came back he would be
100%. I am really happy for him that he did well after his injury. The
second moto I wanted to get to the front to win the Grand Prix. I was
really concentrating hard on my start, because if you are behind on that
track there are a lot of stones. I got to the front and I looked back
and saw I was well ahead.
"It is cool to win in Germany, I never had such a good race at that
track. It’s a special track and you sometimes loss traction and have to
find it again.”
Now the major concern for Desalle is not to get too carried away with
his current domination of Cairoli (he has beaten Cairoli often of late)
and just concentrate on Grand Prix after Grand Prix.
"It is good that I close the gap on Antonio, but I am still
disappointed about Italy and it wasn’t a consistent weekend, to win the
championship you need to be consistent all the time. Sure I won in
Germany and the lead is just 25 points, which is just one moto and I
will try and close the gap even more in Sweden.”
Now onto the Grand Prix of Sweden where Antonio Cairoli has suffered
terrible luck in the past. Can Desalle make the most of the Scandinavian
stop in the MXGP series and walk away from Sweden and Finland with the
MXGP points lead?