An educational day for HRC MX2
Anthony Rodriguez had his first official FIM world championship race today alongside team mate Michele Cervellin in Ottobiano for round 11 of MXGP.
The DNF in qualifying yesterday was costly for Rodriguez. Having last gate pick left him in the unfortunate position of not being able to get a good start today. Despite this, the Venezuelan took it in his stride, relaxing more into the MXGP race format and battled on until the end finishing 16th in both races. It has been an educational weekend for Rodriguez and he now looks ahead to Portugal.
For Cervellin this was a big race today for him in front of his home crowd. Although he didn’t have such a good run in the first race as a result of a poor start, the second race he gated well and was running in fourth position with huge support from the crowd. Usually the Italian’s strength is to push harder at the end of the race but instead, within the last 10 minutes he found himself lagging in energy losing the position but still secured 11th overall.
Michele Cervellin 747
It has been a difficult day. After my injury in Russia I haven’t been able to train and have had to have a lot of medicine to prevent infection which has not been helpful. This is my home GP with many fans coming to see me so I am disappointed I couldn’t do better today. I got 11th overall which isn’t good but isn’t so bad as I haven’t been able to ride since Russia. Now this week, I can get back out on the bike and get back training to prepare for Portugal.
Anthony Rodriguez 127
Racing was a bit rough today. Qualifying was pretty bad yesterday with a crash and then another crash, so unfortunately, I had the last gate pick and in both of the Moto’s today I started last. I am really happy with the way I gave my heart out, I really did give it my all today but obviously, I am not happy with the result. Each race I had 16th place finish, coming from dead last so I was happy about that but I expected to be top 10 and I wasn’t. I also didn’t expect the track to get that rough. One thing I did like was the metal start grid, that is new for me too and I can see how it is fairer for all riders. It is definitely different to what I am use too and it is something I have got to adjust to but I am confident Portugal will be a different story.
Roger Harvey
We have obviously had Anthony riding with us is this weekend in his first every MXGP. My expectations of him were to be in top 15 but his were to be in the top 10. He did at times run in the top 15 so really this was good. He isn’t used to racing for this length of time and the amount of riding they have to do over two days. The format is very different from America but we are expecting better from in Portugal next weekend.
Michele had a poor start so he was coming through the field in the first race. The second race he had a much better start and held a good position until 15 mins into the race when the heat got too much. Much like that of HRC MXGP we again we are seeing the result of lack of bike time.
Race 1
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
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Race 2
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
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Rider standings
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Points | Team | Constructor |
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Location Information
Ottobiano, Province of Pavia, Italy - View in Google Maps
