Source: Suzuki Racing.

Rockstar Energy Suzuki World’s Clement Desalle and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings shone with victory at the French round of the MXGP World Championship at Saint Jean d’Angely.

A racer should always push until the checkered flag and Desalle proved exactly why. After putting himself in a good position in both races, second place behind Antonio Cairoli (Red Bull KTM), Desalle wound up the beneficiary of the champ’s errors in not one, but two races allowing him to take two race wins for his second perfect score of the year.

The final two laps of MXGP’s race two put Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jeremy Van Horebeek to the ultimate test as he pulled out all the stops to keep the seven-time world champion Cairoli at bay. Digging deep paid off for the Belgian as he defeated Cairoli by a hair for second overall and his eighth podium out of a possible nine this season.

Today can confirm that Cairoli is human after all, as the Italian was forced back to third after a costly error with two laps to go in both races. While it’s not often the MXGP red plate holder makes errors of this caliber, it happened and cost him a couple of spots on the podium.

Local hero Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Steven Frossard kept his French fans on their toes today when a mistake in race one forced him to impressively fight forward from well outside of the top 20 to eventually cross the line in sixth.

Meanwhile in race two, the Frenchman started up front and pressured Van Horebeek for third for a good part of the race, but unfortunately couldn’t find a place on the hard and tricky St Jean d’Angely circuit to find some extra speed meaning he would have to settle for fourth and fourth overall.

Rounding out the top five Team HRC’s Evgeny Bobryshev rode two solid races to take home a trio of fifths. Fifth place in both motos gave the Russian fifth overall.

Yet another flawless meeting is in the bag for Herlings in MX2 despite his biggest threat in the championship Arnaud Tonus starting near the front in both races. While Tonus ran a good pace today, it was evident that the speed and skill of Herlings is just on another level with the Dutch teenager to run away with another 50 points.

Take nothing away from CLS Kawasaki Monster Energy’s Tonus; the Swiss sensation definitely threw everything he could at the Flying Dutchman in race two. Although he showed a fair amount of promise early on in the race, ‘The Bullet’ proved once again to be just too good.

The battle of French pride between Wilvo Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Romain Febvre and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jordi Tixier stole the attention of the boisterous crowd throughout both motos. With both French youngsters brawling for the final spot on the podium, in the end it was Tixier who prevailed forcing Febvre to settle for fourth.

Australia’s Luke Styke was ruled out of the weekend for KEMEA Yamaha with a chest injury sustained in Saturday’s qualifying session.

2014 MXGP World Championship
Round nine – Saint Jean d’Angely, France

MXGP overall results:
1. Clement Desalle
2. Jeremy Van Horebeek
3. Antonio Cairoli
4. Steven Frossard
5. Evgeny Bobryshev
6. Kevin Strijbos
7. Shaun Simpson
8. Rui Goncalves
9. Matiss Karro
10. Davide Guarneri

MXGP championship standings:
1 Antonio Cairoli 393
2 Clement Desalle 373
3 Jeremy Van Horebeek 358
4 Kevin Strijbos 276
5 Gautier Paulin 205
6 Steven Frossard 197
7 Shaun Simpson 183
8 Evgeny Bobryshev 168
9 Max Nagl 166
10 Xavier Boog 159
18. Todd Waters (AUS) 107

MX2 overall results
1. Jeffrey Herlings
2. Arnaud Tonus
3. Jordi Tixier
4. Romain Febvre
5. Valentin Guillod
6. Dylan Ferrandis
7. Tim Gajser
8. Jeremy Seewer
9. Petar Petrov
10. Max Anstie

MX2 championship standings:
1. Jeffrey Herlings 394
2. Arnaud Tonus 349
3. Romain Febvre 297
4. Jordi Tixier 291
5. Dylan Ferrandis 278
6. Tim Gajser 235
7. Aleksandr Tonkov 216
8. Valentin Guillod 205
9. Jose Butron 199
10. Glenn Coldenhoff 176
18. Luke Styke (AUS) 68

WMX overall results:
1. Livia Lancelot
2. Chiara Fontanesi
3. Meghan Rutledge
4. Stephanie Laier
5. Natalie Kane

WMX championship standings:
1. Chiara Fontanesi 163
2. Meghan Rutledge 159
3. Natalie Kane 151
4. Livia Lancelot 149
5. Stephanie Laier 142

Click here for detailed results