Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre scored his fifth consecutive GP win in the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship with victory at Vantaa on the outskirts of the Finnish capital city Helsinki.
Glorious weather welcomed riders, teams and fans on race day for the fourteenth round of the premier off-road world series and the Frenchman was in superb form. He stormed under the championship leader for second place on the opening lap of race one and a lap later made another scintillating pass around the outside of the previous leader. Although he never moved more than a couple of seconds clear during the remaining thirty minutes there was never any doubt who was in charge. The Kawasaki star moved into second already at turn two of the second moto and, although he came tantalisingly close to a pass for the race lead on several occasions, he had to be content with runner-up in moto but secure in the knowledge that a fifth consecutive GP victory was in-the-bag. The location of the record victory was even more poignant as Finland is the home base of Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, and the Vantaa track was also the scene of KRT team manager Antti Pyrhönen’s sole career GP victory as a rider in 2009. With five rounds of the world series remaining Febvre remains second, ninety-eight points shy of the series leader and seventy-two points clear of third.
Romain Febvre: “I have felt one with the bike for a long time now and my confidence is growing every week. I had the speed every time I went on the track this weekend but, as we already saw yesterday, it is not easy to pass here. I could make two decisive passes early in the first moto; Seewer kept me on my toes but I was always in control. It was more difficult in race two; I had the speed again and I came close several times but some parts of the track were getting really tricky and you had to take care. I tried to stick to Jorge and hope he would make a mistake but he didn’t, so in the last two laps I concentrated on riding my own race because I knew second was good enough for the overall. Five-in-a-row, and I did it on the team’s home soil ! I have now beaten my personal best from 2015 so let’s keep it going.”
A rapid getaway saw Mitch Evans prominent entering the first turn in race one but he emerged eleventh as he was pushed wide and, after temporarily being pushed back to twelfth, regained eleventh seven laps from the end of the race. Ninth for twelve laps in race two, he eventually surrendered one position as he faced vision problems with broken goggles to come home tenth for the same placing overall on the day. The Australian remains fourteenth in the series standings but is now just fifteen points from a top-ten ranking despite missing the opening four rounds of the series.
Mitch Evans: “I felt more comfortable today; it’s just a shame about race two. A rock hit the cannister on my roll-offs on the first lap so I was wiping my goggles all moto.”
Antti Pyrhönen (KRT team manager): “It’s unbelievable the streak we have going on at the moment. It’s a really great performance by Romain; he is riding so strong and so fast, but also so mature and calculated. The track was difficult to pass but he kept trying and did not give up right to the end; it is also visible that his confidence is growing ever more and then you make the right decisions. Everyone can see that Romain is really comfortable with the bike; he is capable of good starts and has the speed from start-to-finish every race. Otherwise you don’t win five-in-a-row. We are absolutely thrilled. It gives power to the entire team for the work we are doing; we are always motivated but we feel even more confident as a crew with these successes and our group in Japan follow every race on TV and are really happy too of course. It was also a great feeling to reach this milestone here in Finland, and also a nice moment for me personally … I won a GP myself here in Vantaa in 2009.”
