Photo: Ray Archer
Starting from pole position, whilst sporting a new outfit in his national colours, Clément Desalle took the holeshot. He held the lead for a couple of laps, then he battled with Ken De Dycker who proved too fast for Clément. However the LS Motors-Honda rider could hold off Steve Ramon to take second. The second heat would however turn into a bit of a nightmare for the fledgling young Belgian. Crashing in the first bend Desalle damaged his exhaust pipe. In true “Panda style” he made his way back from 27 th to 7th in just two laps. Soon he would find himself fifth, a place he would lose on the finish line to Manuel Priem. However, Desalle would loose a lot more places when he got docked a time penalty of one minute because of his damaged exhaust. That meant Desalle would be classified ninth and fifth overall. The time-penalty meant also he lost 4 points and his fourth place in the provisional World championship standings. Desalle now trails 4 points behind Ken De Dycker.
Clément Desalle ”I was happy with my pole position, still I knew Sunday was going to be something else. My new engine was working really well this weekend and it was great to get the holeshot in the first race. De Dycker was just a bit faster, but in the first place my goal was to be on the podium in my home GP. Unfortunately I went down in the first corner. I was able to come back quickly, although my exhaust was getting more and more damaged and I was loosing power. It’s a shame, but things like this happen. On the positive side, I was not feeling tired after my race in the US and my speed was good.”
Heat 1: 1 De Dycker (B-Suzuki), 2 Clément Desalle (B-LS Motors-Honda), 3 Ramon (BEL-Suzuki); 4 Coppins (NZ-Yamaha), 5 Cairoli (ITA-Yamaha), 5
Philippaerts (I-Yamaha), 6 Nagl (D-KTM), 7 Philipaerts (ITA-Yamaha), 8 T. Leok (EST-Yamaha), 9 Strijbos (BEL-Honda), 10 Priem (BEL-Aprilia)) / Heat 2: 1 Nagl, 2
Cairoli (ITA-Yamaha), 2 Nagl, 3, De Dycker, 4 Ramon, 5 Priem, 6 Leok T., 7 Coppins, 8 Swanepoel, 9 Clément Desalle (B-LS Motors-Honda), 10 Philipaerts
GP of Limburg classification: 1 De Dycker 47, 2 Nagl 40, 3 Cairoli 38 4 Ramon 38, 5 Clément Desalle (LS Motors-Honda) 34, 6 Coppins 32, 7 T. Leok
28, 8 Priem 27, 9 Philippaerts 25, 10 Terreblanche 14
MX1 World Championship standings; 1 Cairoli 466 2 Nagl 415, 3 Philippaerts 388, 4 De Dycker 383, 5 Clément Desalle (LS Motors-Honda) 379, 6 Coppins 375, 7 T. Leok 327, 8 Barragan 215, 9 Swanepoel 188, 10 A. Leok 167
