MX1 Championship leader Antonio Cairoli marked his comeback to victory in Sweden courtesy of two moto wins right before the start of the FIM Motocross World Championship’s summer break.
Taking victory number four of 2010, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MX1’s Cairoli walked away from Sweden with an extended championship lead. The Italian, who won both heats, is now 67 points ahead of Clement Desalle whom he passed for the lead of moto two after having dominated the opening moto.
The Rockstar Teka Suzuki World MX1 Team completed the overall podium and now looks forward to their home grand prix in Lommel, Belgium, coming up next on 1 August.
Desalle was second overall and collected his fifth consecutive podium. The winner of the last GP in Latvia recovered to second in the opening moto and was again second in the final moto, which he was leading until a hard charging Cairoli moved past him and pulled away.
Steve Ramon mounted on the third step of the podium after a solid final moto. The Belgian, who missed this GP last year due to a neck injury, was close to Desalle towards the end of the heat but decided to settle for an eventual safe third. In moto one instead Ramon was fourth.
Once again CAS Honda’s Evgeny Bobryshev missed his first podium by a bunch of points. The Russian already came close to the podium in Latvia and today took another fourth overall after he made a mistake in the final moto, when he tried to move past Desalle for second. He was an eventual fourth in the second moto and fifth in the first one.
Yamaha Monster Energy Motocross’ David Philippaerts completed the top five. After a good third place in the opening moto, the Italian had a bad start to moto two and struggled to recover. KTM’s Max Nagl was sixth ahead of Xavier Boog.
Kawasaki CLS’s Steven Frossard interrupted KTM’s winning streak in the MX2 class as he took his first ever grand prix victory at Uddevalla. The Frenchman made up for a disappointing qualifying heat with two solid performances on Sunday.
Frossard moved past Shaun Simpson and Jeffrey Herlings in heat one to lead until the chequered flag while he let Ken Roczen by in the second moto and took second. The German troubled Frossard also in the opening heat, making mistakes but always coming back to the Frenchman’s tail, eventually a mechanical problem ruled him out with just two laps to go.
Now the French has equalled runner-up Ken Roczen in the championship standings with a total of 355 points.
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MX2’s Herlings was a positive second on the podium in Uddevalla, where he had never raced a grand prix before. The Dutch, who won in Kegums last weekend, was handed second by Roczen in the opening moto and rounded off the day with a fourth place in the final moto.
With Roczen having pulled away from runner up Frossard, the second moto was added drama by Paulin’s recovery in the final laps. The French worked his way to the first 2010 podium by passing both Marvin Musquin and Herlings in the final six laps. Combining a third place in moto two and a fifth in moto one, the French earned the overall podium.
After taking third in the opening moto, Kawasaki CLS’ Jeremy Van Horebeek was troubled by pain to his neck due to last weekend’s injury. The Belgian could do no better than sixth in the second moto and dropped down to fourth overall.
Championship leader Musquin of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MX2 was a bitter fifth overall, combining a fourth and a fifth place in the heats. Musquin struggled with bad starts but his main rival in the championship Roczen still scored lass points than him due to his dnf in moto one.
American Michael Leib took his best result of the season with ninth overall right ahead of Simpson. The British was leading race one when he was passed by Frossard and crashed.