MASSIMO ZANZANI’S ASSEN MXGP PHOTO GALLERY
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450 GRAND PRIX
This is the front straight of the Assen road race circuit—covered with 3 feet of sand. Unfortunately, it rained cats and dogs and the sand was replaced with water in the first moto. Tony Cairoli (222) and Glenn Coldenhoff (259) lead the 450 charge.
First place: “I enjoyed the victory today and to win in sand made it even sweeter; for sure that is a surprise to some people but I am actually good in sand. I am back and now I want to win every race I start.”—Clement Desalle.
Second place: “It was a good weekend overall but for sure it could have been even better. Especially in the first moto the track was in horrible condition. It was not fixed as it should have been, and it was very dangerous and very slow, but the same for everybody.”—Tony Cairoli went 4-1.
Third place: “It was an amazing weekend. The last few races have gone very well, especially the last one in Switzerland where I was third, so the confidence is building.”—Glenn Coldenhoff went 3-3.
Fourth place: “The opening moto felt like an extreme enduro race. There was water everywhere and in some parts of the track you had to struggle to stay on two wheels. I got a decent start and battled my way to sixth place.”—Max Nagl went 6-4.
Fifth place: “Overall it was a pretty good weekend. In the second moto I knew I needed to finish second to be on the podium, and I tried. It’s a bit of a bummer, but we did everything right, and we’re still fifth on a day. I’m happy.”—Jeremy Van Horebeek went 5-6.
Sixth place: Sean Simpson won Assen last year and expected to win this year, especially after winning the first moto. Unfortunately, he finished 16th in the second moto.
Seventh place: Tanel Leok went 9-8 in the sand. He is 15th in 450 GP points with two rounds to go.
Eighth place: “I was pretty happy with my first moto—an eighth was not so bad in these conditions. The track was better for the second moto. It’s just a shame that I crashed and lost two places.”—Jordi Tixier went 8-10.
450 points leader Tim Gajser finished 12th in the first moto and was trying to move into second in the second moto when he shot his bike off the track and ended up with a broken throttle cable. Gajser went 12-DNF.
Gautier Paulin—“Today was really hard. I struggled in both races and and just couldn’t get comfortable. I’m really disappointed because I thought we could fight well today. I hope next weekend will be a different story.” Paulin went 19-18.
250 GRAND PRIX
Jorge Prado (61) and Jeffrey Herlings (84) lead the charge to the first turn in the 250 class.
First place: Jeffrey Herlings won the overall, but he got beat by Thomas Covington in moto one and had a fierce battle with Jorge Prado in the second moto. His points lead grew to 76 points over Jeremy Seewer and he should clinch the 250 crown in Charlotte.
Second place: It was Jorge Prado’s first 250 Grand Prix. He was brilliant in the sand in Assen and he will get a chance to show what he can do on different kinds of dirt at Charlotte and Glen Helen.
When Jeffrey Herlings (84) caught Jorge Prado (61) the battle of the teammates began. Herlings expressed his disgust with Prado for having the nerve to race with him by flashing hand gestures, but later, on the podium, Jeffrey went out of his way to praise the teenager.
Third place: Brian Bogers went 3-3 in the sand. That’s because he is a sand specialist—although he did have a 2-3 day in Italy four races ago.
Fifth place: Thomas Kjer Olsen moved from EMX 250 to the 250 GPs two races ago. So far he has finished 7-11-7-5 in his brief GP career.
Sixth place: Thomas Covington hasn’t made the podium this season and then went out in the slop and won the first 250 moto. But, he was 16th in moto 2 (an identical score to 450 first moto winner Shaun Simpson).
Seventh place: Benoit Paturel is third in 250 Grand Prix points. His 5-10 was good enough for 7th place. He lost 4 points to fourth place Max Anstie and needs to protect a 13-point lead heading to America.
Jeremy Seewer is second in 250 points and was mathematically in a position to take Jeffrey Herlings all the way to Glen Helen before the title was decided, but after going 15-13 at Assen he lost 33 points to Herlings in one race.
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