Photo: CDS
Clément Desalle (20) ended his sensational breakthrough season on a spectacular high note, similar to the Faenza podium that kickstarted his GP campaign with LS Motors-Honda! More than 20.000 spectators witnessed how the Belgian rode his CRF450 R to a moto win and a second. Not only was it the second GP win of the season for Clément, his Brazilian victory also secured a brilliant overall podium in the final standings of the FIM MX1 World Championship. After 15 GP’s Desalle actually landed just 17 points away from runner-up Max Nagl. The spectacular rider from Gouy-Lez-Piéton also collected an impressive tally of seven podiums...
Due to exceptional rainfall the format for the GP of Brazil was changed drastically with both practice and qualifying taking place on Sunday rather than Saturday. However the organizer’s decision turned out to be a masterstroke, because today weather conditions were sunny and the track improved as the day wore on. Desalle seemed to gel immediately with the supercross styled track and he was only denied pole by Cairoli who was just three tenths quicker. More proof of Desalle’s riding skills followed in the opening moto. From fourth in the start he made headway rapidly, passing Dereuver and Ramon on the opening lap. With only Nagl in front of him, Desalle started to produce one fast lap after the other. By half race distance the ‘MX Panda’ not only caught up with the German ace he passed him cool, calm and collected. The LS Motors-Honda thus scored his third moto win of the season.
Moto two might have turned out a carbon copy of the first for Desalle. If it hadn’t been for a weaker start and the extra ground to make up as a result. Although the leading privateer was yet again the fastest man on track. After three laps Clément was in third and another three laps down the line he passed De Dycker for second. However by that point the race leader Ramon had build himself a respactble margin and Desalle decided to settle for second. In the closing stages Clément expertly withstood Coppins‘ final push to finish the job.
Clément Desalle: ”I’m really pumped with my second GP win. Even more because it’s always special to win an overseas event and certainly in front of this big and passionate crowd here today! So capping of my season in third overall was just perfect. Today was also the birthday of my sister Cloé and I’m dedicating my victory to her, because she’s always been very supportive of my career.
It’s true that compared to other GP’s we had less time to familiarise with the track, but that didn’t matter to me. I had the idea before that the track would suit me and that turned out to be correct! In the second moto I tried to hunt down Steve (Ramon), but he was just too strong. Ramon was too far off and I need all my focus to stay on two wheels and defend my position from Coppins.”
