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MXGP, MXGP OF FRANCE- Villars Sous Ecot, France, 20 Maggio 2023

Romain Febvre returns with a seventh in Qualifying

Romain Febvre of Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP qualified seventh for the French round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Villars-sous-Ecot on his return to action.

With gate positions of relatively little relevance and just two seconds covering the top dozen in practice the home-country favorite concentrated on searching for a good rhythm around the heavily-rutted track which had been made very challenging by heavy rainfall in recent weeks. Eleventh on the opening lap of the Qualifying race he made a series of decisive passes to reach his eventual seventh position on the sixth on eleven laps.
 
Romain Febvre: «I didn’t have a good start in the Qualifying race today and didn’t felt so comfortable on the track; it was very rough with many ruts. We will change a few settings on the bike for tomorrow and I hope they will make a good track preparation overnight for the GP motos; the positions behind the gate are not so important here with the long start-straight."
 
KRT teammate Mitch Evans again showed good pace to qualify tenth and the Australian rode a determined first two laps to advance from twentieth leaving turn one to eleventh at the end of lap two. He maintained a top-fifteen ranking for seven laps until his recent lack of race practice saw him throttle back in the final laps to finish eighteenth.
 
Big Van World MTX Kawasaki’s Jack Chambers made a lightening start in Qualifying for the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship to hold down third place through the early stages and was still running in the top ten until small mistakes in the closing laps cost him a couple of positions to finish twelfth.
 
Jack Chambers: "I got a really good start and could run third for a bit, It was great to run up front with those guys but I just kind of fatigued a little and couldn't stay as focused as I would have liked. I made a couple of mistakes in the later laps, but overall it was a step in the right direction. This is probably one of the gnarnliest rutted tracks I've ever ridden; the closest would be a National in Colorado, but I never rode hills this steep in my life."
 
F&H Kawasaki Racing Team's Kevin Horgmo made several good passes during the opening laps of MX2 Qualifying to eventually finish tenth.
 
Kevin Horgmo: "The first laps is Qualifying felt good but then it became more difficult to move forward and I concentrated on a top-ten finish. The track is very demanding but it's the same for everyone so I just need to find a good feeling tomorrow.'"
 
F&H teammate David Braceras maintained consistent fast laps as he raced strongly from eighteenth on the first lap of Qualifying to finish thirteenth.
 
David Braceras: "The track was very technical but my start was not so good today; I'm sure I can improve on thirteenth tomorrow."
 
BUD Racing Kawasaki's Quentin Marc Prugnières took advantage of a break in the FIM European Championship this weekend to contest a GP for the first time. He started carefully with twenty-third in practice and held a similar position through the early laps of the Qualifying race before getting ever more into his stride to advance to his eventual seventeenth position four laps from the end.