Team HRC left wanting after MXGP in Assen
The MXGP of the Netherlands was a trying affair for Team HRC’s Evgeny Bobryshev and Gautier Paulin, as the difficulty of the slippery sand was compounded by overnight storms, and another storm this morning, which left the conditions more like a beach race.
Race one was particularly perilous, and became an event of attrition as many riders fell foul of the conditions and crashed. As Bobryshev climbed to ninth, Paulin was left towards the back after getting caught as the field bunched into turn two. Able to gain a handful of positions to take the flag in 19th, Bobby came home 11th after crashing whilst chasing for eighth.
By race two, the track had had more chance to dry, and had been worked on during a break in racing so was much improved, although still invited mistakes. Again Bobby started well from the outside gate and moved his way into top ten contention, but Gautier suffered a crash in the first corner which limited his progress.
Next weekend, the action moves swiftly on to the USA and to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the MXGP of the Americas. Held on Saturday night, it promises to be a spectacular, and a very different proposition to this weekend’s racing.
Evgeny Bobryshev 777
“The first race was so hard today – to be honest we were like turtles riding so slow through all the water on the sand. I had a bad gate pick from yesterday, but anyway I could get into top 15 from the starts. In the first moto I made a mistake a had a big crash when I was pushing for eighth, and in the second moto I started well again but unfortunately made a mistake again and went out of the top twenty. It was so easy to make mistakes here. It’s not the place I want to be so it’s frustrating, and it’s just been a hard weekend in general here so now we must just focus on Charlotte, where I’m really excited to put a line under this weekend and line up on the new 2017 race bike for the first time.”
Gautier Paulin 21
“Today was really hard for us. This morning we were third fastest in the warm-up so things were looking good, even after the track changed with all the rain overnight, but then the second storm today changed the track again and we just couldn’t get into it. I struggled in both races after that; couldn’t get into a rhythm and just couldn’t get comfortable. I’m really disappointed because after the speed in warm-up I thought we could fight well today, but especially in the first race when the track was so tough we just couldn’t put it together. I hope next weekend will be a different story because it felt like a struggle here this weekend.”
Roger Harvey
“It’s been a difficult weekend in Assen for us, in contrast to last year here when we were fighting at the front with our three riders. The track was incredibly tricky, especially in the first moto and was so easy to make a mistake, and those mistakes were punished, but it’s been like that for everyone – we just couldn’t put it all together. This morning Gautier showed he had the speed, but then in the races when the track changed it went away, and that just shows the type of disjointed weekend we’ve had in Assen. The good point is that there’s no time to dwell on it because we’re packing the crates for the two USA GPs tonight and we’re racing again in six days, so we hit the reset button and we’ll come out fighting in Charlotte.”
Race 1
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Race 2
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Rider standings
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Points | Team | Constructor |
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Location Information
Assen, The Netherlands - View in Google Maps
