Photo: Ray Archer
One would almost forget that the weekend started off on the wrong foot for Desalle. He crashed early in Saturday’s qualifying race in the wavesection. TM’s Aigar Leok went down in front of Clément and it was too late to avoid him. Luckily ‘MX Panda’ managed to get going again, contrary to Leok himself. However his GP chances received a heavy blow because the LS Motors-Honda star had to continue with bent handlebars and only managed a miserable 21st position on the gate as a result.
Cool, calm and collected Desalle made the best of the situation powering his CRF450R skilllfully through the first corner, thus putting him near the front of the pack. Settling into third place Clément never looked back even when he came under serious pressure from Cairoli. The second moto saw a slightly less effective start, although Desalle took the fifth place before the end of the opening lap. The Ufo-sponsored rider remained close to Philippaerts (third) and De Dycker (fourth) for most of the race, but settled for fifth in the end.
Clément Desalle ”I’m glad I was able tot turn my chances around after a disastrous qualifying race! The track was not in a great shape either on Saturday, but conditions got better as the weekend went along. In general I’m quite happy with the GP, because I was able to climb up another spot in the championship. I was third in front of Cairoli in the first moto, but in the second race my start was not so good. I was staying close to De Dycker and Philippaerts. Then I had a small battle with De Dycker for fourth but then I lost contact again. I started making up ground on them onceagain but then I made a mistake and settled for my position.”
Heat 1: 1 Nagl (DUI-KTM), 2 De Dycker (B-Suzuki), 3 Clément Desalle (B-LS Motors-Honda), 4 Cairoli (ITA-Yamaha), 5 Philippaerts (I-Yamaha), 6 Coppins
(NZ-Yamaha), 7 T. Leok (EST-Yamaha), 8 Aranda (FRA-Kawasaki), 9 Swanepoel (RSA-Kawasaki), 10 Bryan Mackenzie (GBR-Honda) / Heat 2: 1 Cairoli (ITA-
Yamaha), 2 Nagl, 3 Philipaerts, 4 De Dycker, 5 Clément Desalle (B-LS Motors-Honda), 6 Leok T., 7 Coppins, 8 Vuillemin, 9 Swanepoel, 10 Bill
GP of Sweden classification: 1 Nagl 47, 2 Nagl 43, 3 De Dycker 40, 4 Philippaerts 36, 5 6 Clément Desalle (LS Motors-Honda) 36, 6 T. Leok 29, 7 Coppins 29, 8 Swanepeoel 24, 9 Bill 19, 10 Bryan Mackenzie 18
MX1 World Championship standings; 1 Cairoli 428, 2 Nagl 375, 3 Philippaerts 363, 4 Clément Desalle (LS Motors-Honda) 345, 5 Coppins 343, 6 De Dycker 338, 7 T. Leok 299, 8 Barragan 215, 9 Swanepoel 175, 10 A. Leok 167
