Paulin dominates with double win and his first Team HRC overall victory at Valkenswaard

Gautier Paulin continued his domination of the MXGP of Europe today with a clean sweep of race wins to take the overall victory. The win is the first of 2015 for Team HRC, and Gautier’s first on the Honda CRF450RW.

His pace was unrelenting all weekend and, with two very strong starts, he had to make just a few passes on the opening laps to secure the lead. Once he got to the front, he was in a league of his own as he chalked up two runaway wins.

It was so very nearly a Team HRC double podium too, with Evgeny Bobryshev putting in an equally strong showing. Bobby finished third in race one and, having been running as high as second in race two, was involved in a scrap to the line for third place, which was also a fight for the final step on the podium. By the flag, 1.4seconds was the gap by which he missed what would have been his first ever MXGP podium with Team HRC. Nevertheless, it was a very positive weekend for the Russian that adds to the momentum of Team HRC and the Honda CRF450RW in MXGP.

As the team continues to work hard in testing, and crucially bringing together all the different elements of that testing, the fruits of that labour are now really beginning to show.

Roger Harvey

HRC General Manager - MXGP

“It’s been a magic weekend. A lot of work has gone into this by HRC staff, both here and back in Japan, and of course the whole team who have done a great job. To get things sorted everybody has been flat out all week since Arco. We started to get glimmers of the performance there, with Bobby’s qualifying win, but put some more work in during the week and it’s really worked out for us here.

“Gautier had a great ride all weekend, and was in control from the start in both races which was great to see. I’m really pleased with the way Bobby has gone today too because the Bobby of old would have just gone faster and maybe made a big mistake, especially with the track the way it was, but now he looked at the situation and made sure he brought home good points with fourth overall. We’ve seen how many crashes there have been round here this weekend, so to come away like that I’m really pleased with the effort of everyone this weekend so I want to say a big thanks to HRC, Honda, the team and the riders who are all working so well together to make this happen.”

Gautier Paulin ²¹

1st, 1st 1st overall

“It is very special and standing on the podium with all the fans singing the national anthem is something you cannot buy. It’s something that just a win can bring. I’m really happy to feel that again today as it is something really really cool and this is what we do all the work for. I want to thank all the crew because they all believe in what we can do, and since Arco we can things are really starting to come together so I have so much pleasure from this win. It’s been a great race, especially when you dominate the weekend – qualifying win, first moto win, second moto win – it’s just been a perfect weekend.”

Evgeny Bobryshev ⁷⁷⁷

3rd, 4th 4th overall

“To be honest it was a tough weekend for me and I’m really happy with this. I compressed my back last Wednesday so we’ve been working with the team physio all weekend and I was fighting through the pain. But the final result was really good. I missed the podium by a little, but I call it good points and just kept it on two wheels because the track was really tough and many riders crashed. I’m really happy as we have been working a lot and improved the bike a lot, and I’d also like to congratulate all the team for the victory with Gautier as everyone really deserves this.”

MXGP 2015 Sunday, April 26th 2015

Race Round 5 GP of Europe Netherlands