Much was made of the World Champion’s decision to add an extra 100cc to his race bike for the Grand Prix of Spain and whether Tony Cairoli’s strongest motive was to find something to counter the threat of his rivals or to fully utilise a motorcycle with which KTM appear to have struck a winning formula (and maiden AMA 450SX honours no less) the effect was instantaneous.
The 29 year old was fastest in both practice sessions run on the light Talavera hard-pack (not Cairoli’s preferred type of terrain bizarrely) and under hot sunshine and escaped with the holeshot and Qualification race victory for his first Pole Position of the season. He even set the fastest lap to complete the set. Behind him Rockstar Suzuki’s Clement Desalle circulated at a comfortable distance with HRC’s Evgeny Bobryshev and Red Bull IceOne Husky’s Max Nagl at intervals in the top five.
It was a static race and reflected the tight and narrow layout of the track that incessantly works its way up or down the three hills that punctuate the landscape. Yamaha’s Romain Febvre was fifth and claimed that the course “had lines…but everyone used the same one and it was hard for passing.” The qualification heat was not great for European GP winner Gautier Paulin who started averagely and could only manage sixth place. Rockstar Suzuki’s Glenn Coldenhoff had been quick earlier in the day and hadn’t dropped out of the top six but a nasty crash led to a fractured and painful left thumb and the Dutch MXGP rookie will try to ride the warm-up with medication tomorrow. Hitachi Construction Revo KTM’s Shaun Simpson had a goggle problem on the first lap and dropped out of a top ten finish. A crash also for 24MX Honda’s Christophe Charlier.
It is clearly evident that the top five exiting the first corners tomorrow will be those in principal contention for podium spots and it is hard to look beyond the ‘222’ on his new steed. “The 350 was ‘born’ with me and I won a lot of titles with it and I know how to handle it so I’m sad to leave it but the new 450 is so strong,” he said afterwards. “I was actually getting a bit tired after five or six laps because you somehow use different muscles and this is something that you can only see in the races when you are giving that little bit more than you do in training.”
Cairoli missed out on the podium at the previous round at Valkenswaard in Holland, a venue where he had won five Grands Prix in a row (the same as Jeffrey Herlings). The small fracture to his left hand – a consequence of that heavy first moto crash in the sand and subsequent DNF due to a broken radiator – caused numbness that nullified his threat in the second affiar to seventh position. He insisted it was not a problem for the 450 that he had only ridden twice since the Netherlands after intensive therapy during the free week. Ahead of arguably his best chance to own a GP this season Cairoli was asked if he was surprised to be at round six of the series and looking towards hat-trick victor Max Nagl at the top of the MXGP standings. “For sure I’m not surprised because Max is one of the fastest here…in fact I am more surprised that I have not been on the top of a podium yet! But it will come, no rush…I hope!”
When prompted for his opinion on whether Cairoli armed with a 450 will mean a renewed threat Desalle commented: “If he has changed his bike then maybe he is searching for something…I don’t know. Anyway he’s a good rider and will always be fast.”
‘Fast’ is a label that Red Bull KTM Jeffrey Herlings routinely carries in MX2. Today he faced a double Monster Energy Kawasaki squeeze from Thomas Covington (blasting from seventeenth in Timed Practice to lead almost all of the Heat race) and Jordi Tixier, who loomed closely for most of the sprint but then made a mistake on the last lap and remounted to tenth. Herlings mused on the one-line nature of the track and decided only to really attack the American with two laps to go to maintain his 100% Pole Position record in the class this year. The twenty year old remarked in the post-race press conference that it was still too early to talk about a 2016 move to MXGP although his estimation of having talks in two months time smacked of evasion.
There was an encouraging start to the weekend with a hoard of eager public surrounding a small stage in the centre of Talavera de la Reina to see a good spread of MXGP and MX2 stars introduced. The presenter’s attempts at either pronunciation or correct information was nothing short of embarrassing but it was clear to see (and hear) the loud receptions for Spaniards Jorge Prado (EMX125 race winner in Holland and second in the first outing at Talavera today), Jorge Zaragoza (in his first race as HRC MX2 team-mate to Tim Gajser since recovering from back injury) and the biggest cheer was reserved for Jose Butron who battled so valiantly for a an MX2 podium place here last year but it unlikely to be such a protagonist this time in MXGP (especially after he lost his right footpeg in the qualification heat and rode to fourteenth). This kind of initiative would be a welcome sight at every other round.
More sunshine tomorrow and it will be curious who can find the lines and possibilities to shake up the lap charts.
Photo by Ray Archer
