Clement Desalle Interview

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?