Honda produced a victory ad to celebrate Clément Desalle's heat victory in the Latvian GP. Nice touch! Check the corporate Honda site here http://world.honda.com/WMX/2009/10latvia/ for more on our Baltic success. 
Twenty-year old Clément Desalle continues to upset the MX1 pecking order. ‘MX Panda’ guided his CRF450R to
an impressive victory in the first moto of the Latvian GP on the sandy Kegums track! In the second outing Clément was making an equally strong impression on the more than 26.000 enthusiastic spectators. Unfortunately the LS Motors-Honda suffered a clutch problem when leading the race and settled for fifth thus safeguarding his second overall position. The fast Belgian wrote some personal history in the process not only by claiming his fourth podium of the season, runner-up is also a career best for him. Desalle remains fifth in the MX1 standings, with only 5 points less than Josh Coppins in fourth place and 19 points away from second placed Max Nagl. The GP of Latvia was won by Tony Cairoli, with Coppins in third. In the MX1 constructors classification Honda currently holds third largely thanks to Desalle and his LS Motors team.
Clément Desalle ”I’m really happy with second, and even more with my first heat win of course! This is a great reward for myself, the team and my family who have worked hard to get me here. My speed was good so it was not so hard to control the race after I had passed Nagl. When Cairoli came back there was some pressure for sure, but I managed to keep my lead and it all worked out! Again I felt strong in the second moto, but I had this problem with my clutch. I was a little disappointed because of that because otherwise I would have been second behind Tony (Cairoli) but as well know that’s part of the game when you’re racing. I gained some points on Nagl and Philippaerts in the championship so that’s another positive.”
Photo: CDS
European championship success on the same track and his recent form provided Dennis Verbruggen with plenty of
confidence ahead of the Latvian GP. The sandy, fast terrain 40 kilomentres south-east of Riga certainly favoured his riding. Crusty posted the third time in Saturday’s pre-qualifying and finished ninth in the qualifying race. Grabbing his best start of the season Verbruggen created an excellent launch path for himself in the first moto. The CRF250R mounted rider ran as high as fifth, but lost a few places finally to come home eighth behind Italy’s Davide Guarneri.
Dennis had another good start but seemed to lack some aggression in the early stages of the second outing. However the 21- year old Belgian pulled himself together and quickly made headway recovering from 14th to 7th behind country man Joël Roelants. Verbruggen’s eighth and seventh culminated in a seventh place overall, making him the highest placed Honda rider of the event. He also replicated his team mate Desalle today in getting his best result of the season so far. The MX2 GP was won by the Portuguese ace Goncalves in forn of Frenchies Musquin and Paulin. Dennis Verbruggen is currntly 18th in MX2 standings, equal on points with Sword.
Dennis Verbruggen “I was feeling fine all weekend and long and finally I managed the top ten result that I have chasing for a while now. My start in the first moto was awesome and that allowed me to climb up to fifth. (grinning) Maybe that was even a notch above my own expectations, because suddenly I encountered a stress attack! I dropped back to eighth, but I was consuming quite a lot of energy as well since I was so tensed. Again I had a good jump from the gate in the second moto and I was about tenth. After that I think I rode a bit too conservatively and lost some places because of that. Still I knew how Physical Kegums can be and the warmth made it quite uncomfortable as well so conserving some energy played to my advantage later on. I was able to catch up and finish seventh.”
