After a thrilling weekend in Saint Jean d’Angely, the FIM Motocross World Championship travels to Agueda, Portugal, to celebrate the sixth grand prix of the season.
Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MX1’s Clement Desalle holds onto the red plate in the MX1 division after a third overall at Saint Jean d’Angely.
Second in the championship is Red Bull Teka KTM’s Antonio Cairoli and third is Monster Energy Yamaha’s Steven Frossard, who won his maiden MX1 GP at his home track last weekend.
In the MX2 class, both Red Bull Teka KTM’s Ken Roczen and Jeffrey Herlings did not finish on the podium in France, but they kept their first and second position respectively in the point standings, followed by CLS Monster Energy Kawasaki Pro Circuit’s Tommy Searle, who also took his first win for 2011 in France.
The MX1 class championship battle is set to heat up from here on out in the season. While Desalle leads the champioship and is consistently showing good form at each round, Cairoli is quickly closing the points gap.
After starting the season in tenth while battling a knee injury, Cairoli had consistently gained pace as the season has progressed, and declared last weekend that he is back to full speed and strength and ready to push for the title.
Meanwhile, MX1 rookie Frossard is fresh off his first win and will be ready to pounce, should either Desalle or Cairoli slip up.
The MX2 class has been dominated by Roczen up until this point, with team mate Herlings always right there in the battle or close in tow.
While a solid fall knocked Roczen out of the overall win in France, Tommy Searle proved he belongs back in the winner’s circle, comfortably dealing with advances from Herlings to win the second moto and the overall.
After some bad luck in previous rounds, expect Searle to mix it with the KTM duo of Roczen and Herlings more often as the season continues in Portugal.
The Grand Prix of Portugal, round six of the the FIM Motocross World Championship will take place this weekend on June 12.