Sevlievo qualifying races results GP OF BULGARIA: Circuit length: 1680 metres. Type of ground: hard pack. Temperature: 18° C. Weather: sunny but very windy MX1: Steven Frossard and Ken Roczen are the first Lovemytime pole position awarded riders of the 2011 season after finishing first in the MX1 and MX2 qualifying races. After an excellent start, Steven Frossard managed to get the lead from the rest of the riders and commanded the whole qualifying race. Evgeny Bobryshev, who was riding first in the opening lap, got a consistent second position, while Clement Desalle climbed from fifth to a final third place. Max Nagl got the holeshot of the MX1 Qualifying race but he could only be fourth ahead of Antonio Cairoli. On his debut in the MX1 class, Monster Energy Yamaha rider Steven Frossard did an outstanding performance being first on Saturday’s qualifying race. The French rider has proved that he has the speed and an excellent rhythm to be on the top of the standings and repeat the Grand Prix victory he obtained last year in Uddevalla, Sweden. Honda World Motocross’ Evgeny Bobryshev did an excellent start in the MX1 Qualifying Race and after Max Nagl took the holeshot, the Russian overtook the German from the inside and placed himself in the lead. Shortly, Frossard got first and Bobryshev raced save until the chequered flag. Third was Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MX1’s Clement Desalle, who was quite satisfied with his performance and he is now focused on tomorrow’s races. The Belgian improved his last year’s fourth position and he expects to be on the podium after the races. Red Bull Teka KTM Factory Racing MX1’s Max Nagl took the holeshot, but he could not keep the lead and went down to eighth. After three laps, the German was already fifth, and by the middle of the race, he overtook Davide Guarneri, who had obtained the best time practice result earlier on the day, and placed himself on the fourth position. 2010 MX1 World Champion Antonio Cairoli did not make a good start and had to push really hard from his initial tenth position to be able to finish fifth. The Italian admitted not to be 100% fully fit yet, but he expects to have good results on tomorrow’s races.  MX2: Ken Roczen dominated the MX2 Qualifying race from beginning to the end with superb authority, while Tommy Searle and Jeffrey Herlings, second and third respectively, were having their own battle behind the German. Zach Osborne was fourth and his teammate Arnaud Tonus completed the top five. Red Bull Teka KTM Factory Racing MX2’s Ken Roczen handed the first victory of the season to his new team by winning the MX2 Qualifying Race. After taking the holeshot, the German led the race and increased the gap with his pursuers lap after lap and crossed the finish line 11 seconds before than second classified Tommy Searle. In his coming back to the FIM MX2 World Championship, CLS Monster Energy Kawasaki Pro Circuit’s Tommy Searle has already obtained a second position and he expects to be on the podium after tomorrow’s races. The British rider starred in a great battle with Jeffrey Herlings, who was finally third. Fourth was a consistent Zach Osborne from Bike It Cosworth Wild Wolf Yamaha, who had previously obtained the best second result during the Pre-Qualifying Practice. Completing the top fifth was his teammate Arnaud Tonus.   MX2 Qualifying race. Photo courtesy of Youthstream. TIMETABLE Sunday: EMX125 Warm up 8:30; MX2 Warm up 9:00; MX1 Warm up 9:30; EMX125 Race 2 11:20; MX2 Grand Prix Race 1 12:10; MX1 Grand Prix Race 1 13:10; MX2 Grand Prix Race 2 15:03; MX1 Grand Prix race 2 16:03. The Grand Prix will be broadcasted LIVE on MX-LIFE.TV and by clicking here you will obtain the full schedule and coverage of the Bulgarian Grand Prix. UEM EMX 125: The first race of the took place today in Sevlievo. Simone Zecchina, who is the Italian Champion under 17, showed a great riding style and finished first ahead of Brent Van Doninck and Jeremy Seewer.  WOMEN'S: The girls are back on action and for the fourth year running the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship season started at the Sevlievo track in Bulgaria. This year though all the practice and racing was held on Saturday with 2010’s World Champion Stephanie Laier replicating what she did a year ago and taking the overall win.
The day started with last year’s usual suspects inside the top-ten during the free and qualifying practice sessions with Laier leading the way from Lancelot, Fontanesi and Papenmeier. Maria Franke and Natalie Kane were the most noticeable absentees this weekend with the latter going under wrist surgery this past week.
Moto 1: On the first moto an invisible adversary in the form of a 'wind-kick' kept trying to blow away the riders on the highest jumps, greatly affecting their performance, though that couldn’t prevent Red Bull Teka KTM factory rider Steffi Laier of grabbing the holeshot on what was the start of the first WMX race of the season.
The defending WMX Champion instantly positioned herself in the lead but not without some initial opposition from Livia Lancelot who came under pressure from Chiara Fontanesi for the first half of the race. The Italian rider didn’t hold herself back even having two WMX World Champions right in front of her.
This fight for second position actually ended up with both Chiara and Lancelot making mistakes and allowing the German KTM race leader to extend the gap for the second place to almost 18 seconds, lapping everyone up until Marielle de Mol’s sixth position.
In fourth position came Larissa Papenmeier who also had a race of her own after losing ground with the top-three. The German rider who had the pole position in the Bulgarian hard-pack circuit a year ago is still trying to adapt herself to this year’s taller KTM machine; much different than the "compacted” Suzuki she had in 2010.
Moto 2: The WMX riders were already anticipating a worse scenario on the track with a mixture of low sunshine and gusty winds producing some severe clouds of dust. Laier holeshoted again and managed to stay up front but not without some trouble coming from Chiara Fontanesi who showed this weekend that she’s not going to make it easy especially for the German girls on the KTMs.
It was actually a completely different outing for Larissa Papenmeier as the KTM Sarholz rider kept recovering time on a fast pace passing Fontanesi for second position nine laps after and ending the race a bit more than three seconds behind the leader.
Livia Lancelot didn’t have the best of starts in fourth position and crashed after the finish line with only one lap to go benefiting Francesca Nocera who got fourth spot overall after going fifth on the first moto. The Italian rider will certainly battle her way to the podium in the next rounds.
Fighting for sixth position were Britt van der Wekken and Sara Petterson with the first getting the better of the Swede after recovering all the way through the field up until fifth position from tenth at the start. Marielle de Mol was also stronger in the end pushing Petterson back another position. Seventh overall went to Marianne Veenstra with two solid rides for the Dutch Suzuki rider.
Although it might look like Stephanie Laier is on the good course to take the title again there’s still a lot to race so expect some warm fights for the lead. The FIM Women’s World Championship’s next stop will be on the April 16th weekend in Megalopolis, Southern Greece, now with t0he MX3 boys as spectators.
Stephanie Laier: "I came back from last year with the red plate and I still have it! It was a tough race, a lot of sun, wind and dust in the air but I’m happy that it ended this way.”
Larissa Papenmeier: "My first race wasn’t that good, I couldn’t find my rhythm and it was bad but the second was awesome; I felt incredible as I had a great start.”
Chiara Fontanesi: "I made a big mistake and crashed on the first moto; I lost a lot of time and hurt my back again. I really like this track where everybody can go fast but it’s harder than last year. Third overall is good for the beginning of the championship.”
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