| Van Horebeek feels improvement at Argentinian MXGP | A rousing Grand Prix of Argentina, round three of eighteen in the FIM Motocross World Championship, saw Yamaha Factory Racing's Jeremy Van Horebeek collect some positive feelings with a hard fought sixth position overall at Neuquen in the depths of Patagonia. Idyllic surroundings of lakes and mountains close to Villa La Angostura housed a brand new racing circuit that was wide, bumpy, fast and formed from volcanic earth that gave the ground a dark, fine almost-sandy texture. The first visit by MXGP to Argentina this century drew a hefty 30,000 crowd as many fans from Chile – only a short distance away – also flocked to Neuquen. Van Horebeek was looking for a lively response to the disappointment of the Grand Prix of Thailand three weeks ago where a crash and knock to the head eventually caused a double DNF. The Belgian had won the opening round of the Dutch national series as well as the Belgian domestic championship before coming to Argentina in a more buoyant and determined mood. In the first moto he was circulating in a top five position and looking to settle into a rhythm until he lost rear-end traction through the 'waves' section and fell. He was able to remount and salvage ninth with a broken front brake lever and a sore left hand. The second race was better for the 2014 runner-up as he maintained a consistent run to fifth place throughout the eighteen laps. His moto was far from easy as team-mate Romain Febvre kept pushing and the Belgian had the enticing prospect of Ryan Villopoto just ahead. Fifth spot equalled JVH's best of 2015 so far and represented a step nearer to a podium celebration. Febvre was busy throughout the Grand Prix. The Frenchman made the official GoPro preview lap together with brand-mate Valentin Guillod on Saturday and was also the second guest on the MXGP Studio TV Show. When it came to the race action '461' took a decent sixth place in qualification. On Sunday and in cooler temperatures he made a good start and followed Ryan Villopoto into the top five. While holding fourth place Febvre made a mistake and fell losing three positions. He then lost two slots in the final three laps with another error and classified eighth. Frustrated, the 2014 MX2 State of Goias GP winner pushed for more in the second moto. He briefly battled with Van Horebeek for a berth in the top five and the duo swapped positions several times before he set a rhythm just behind the '89' machine, and collected sixth for seventh overall for the Grand Prix. DP19 Yamaha Racing's David Philippaerts rode to twentieth and fifteenth for seventeenth in Argentina. '19' struggled to get a handle on the terrain throughout Saturday. The ground was unlike anything the riders tend to find in Europe and the veteran experimented with different tyres and settings to improve grip. A fall at the start of the first moto put him towards the back of pack and he managed more speed in the second race but was still adrift of the lap-times and classification that the former World Champion desired. Febvre is sixth in the MXGP points table with Van Horebeek in ninth and Philippaerts fifteenth. After events in Qatar, Thailand and Argentina, Yamaha's MXGP crew can jet back to Europe and down tools for a few days. The next Grand Prix will take place in Italy and Trentino (at the compact Arco di Trento facility) on April 19th. "Not too bad today but I had a big crash again in the first moto while I was up near the front. I don't know why it is happening at the moment because I feel much better and I know I have the speed. It was a big one and I twisted my thumb. It is really painful but I think it will be OK after some rest. I was riding without a front brake and it was very difficult but I pulled myself together and the result was not too bad. The second moto was good because I had a lot of pain and no power in my thumb; Tony and Nagl were just a bit faster. This year the level is very high. I'm not satisfied about today but I'm pleased with my speed."  |
| | "In the first Heat my start was not so good but I was fast in the first few laps to reach fourth behind Villopoto. I was close to him but made a mistake and lost the front wheel so I crashed. I was sixth, almost the whole moto behind Bobryshev but then made another mistake with three laps to go. I lost a lot of time. The second Heat was better in the start but my riding wasn't great! I recovered to swap some places with my team-mate and then together we started to catch Villopoto. Overall my speed was good but I'm disappointed with the first moto. Perhaps I was too aggressive because the mistakes were stupid." | |  | | "It was a hard day, hard weekend. I couldn't find a solution with the set-up and changed the bike a lot in each session. I found something in warm-up, which we hoped would be better, but the times did not come. I was four-five seconds away from the leaders and normally it is one or two. It was too much compared to the others. It was difficult and I didn't find the lap-times. It is strange and I'm quite angry with how it went." |
| race I | | 1 | Clement Desalle | Suzuki | BEL | 34'34.509 | | 2 | Antonio Cairoli | KTM | ITA | 0'10.650 | | 3 | Maximilian Nagl | Husqvarna | DE | 0'11.673 | | 4 | Ryan Villopoto | Kawasaki | USA | 0'20.097 | | 5 | Evgeny Bobryshev | Honda | RUS | 0'35.002 | | 6 | Gautier Paulin | Honda | FRA | 0'42.023 | | 7 | Christophe Charlier | Honda | FRA | 0'43.303 | | 8 | Romain Febvre | Yamaha | FRA | 0'47.287 | | 9 | Jeremy Van Horebeek | Yamaha | BEL | 0'51.740 | | 10 | Davide Guarneri | TM | ITA | 0'53.389 | | 11 | Todd Waters | Husqvarna | AUS | 0'57.392 | | 12 | Ken De Dycker | KTM | BEL | 1'00.316 | | 13 | Steven Frossard | KTM | FRA | 1'01.595 | | 14 | Glenn Coldenhoff | Suzuki | NLD | 1'03.871 | | 15 | Shaun Simpson | KTM | GBR | 1'04.669 | | 20 | David Philippaerts | Yamaha | ITA | 1'50.656 | | race II | | 1 | Maximilian Nagl | Husqvarna | DE | 35'07.730 | | 2 | Antonio Cairoli | KTM | ITA | 0'02.273 | | 3 | Clement Desalle | Suzuki | BEL | 0'03.673 | | 4 | Ryan Villopoto | Kawasaki | USA | 0'04.865 | | 5 | Jeremy Van Horebeek | Yamaha | BEL | 0'08.700 | | 6 | Romain Febvre | Yamaha | FRA | 0'10.013 | | 7 | Gautier Paulin | Honda | FRA | 0'32.106 | | 8 | Glenn Coldenhoff | Suzuki | NLD | 0'39.482 | | 9 | Todd Waters | Husqvarna | AUS | 0'41.387 | | 10 | Evgeny Bobryshev | Honda | RUS | 0'42.020 | | 11 | Ken De Dycker | KTM | BEL | 0'57.635 | | 12 | Davide Guarneri | TM | ITA | 0'59.931 | | 13 | Steven Frossard | KTM | FRA | 1'00.409 | | 14 | Nathan Watson | Husqvarna | GBR | 1'05.838 | | 15 | David Philippaerts | Yamaha | ITA | 1'10.899 |
| Maximilian Nagl | Husqvarna | DE | 1'49.159 | | |  | | | Circuit Length:
. Weather:
Dry Lap Record:
1'49.159
(Maximilian Nagl, 29-3-2015) | | | |  | | | Day of contrast for Yamaha MX2 wing in Argentina | Thirty-thousand spectators created a vibrant Grand Prix of Argentina for the third round of eighteen in the FIM Motocross World Championship and the packed new circuit near the wonderfully scenic town of Villa La Angostura witnessed a bittersweet day for all four of the riders in the Standing Construct Yamaha and Kemea Yamaha teams in MX2. The contest was owned by Frenchman Dylan Ferrandis while Julien Lieber posted a decent fourth position finish in the first moto but the rest of the day was a dramatic one for the YZ250F-armed quartet. MXGP came to Argentina for the first time since 1995 and Grand Prix-starved fans lapped up the action around a new facility that was wide, quick and slippery in parts as the fine, sandy soil concealed a hard and bumpy base. Raceday was unexpectedly temperate and cloudy but the conditions did not dull the enthusiasm of the crowd and the riders also attacked a layout that boasted some nice jumps and features. Lieber had a strong start in the first moto and shadowed Britain's Max Anstie for a period of the thirty minutes and two laps. He was then challenged by Jeremy Seewer and the pair rode together disputing fourth. The Belgian eventually won the duel for his third top five finish of the season. In the second outing the race was over before it really got going as a hefty crash in the rolling waves section led to a damaged motorcycle and put '33' out of the running. Team-mate Valentin Guillod made the most of a misjudgement with tyre choice in the first moto to work through from ninth place until sixth. The Swiss had his eyes on the overall podium as he changed his set-up for the second sprint but a technical problem on the sighting lap curtailed his involvement and Standing Construct unfortunately had to suffer another retirement. Over in the Kemea camp and Brent Van Doninck made his Grand Prix debut as a replacement for Damon Graulus who will recover fully from his leg injury sustained at the season opener in Qatar and focus on winning the 2015 European EMX250 series. Van Doninck, only nineteen, had a superb first moto and collected points for a top ten finish in ninth. Any possibility of repeating the feat and bagging a superb overall classification was ruined by a front brake problem that forced him to retire after seven laps and while in ninth once more. Benoit Paturel was reasonably content after the first MX2 moto in which he rode his YZ250F to eighth place and his second-best result of the year so far. The rookie is looking fast and fit on the Kemea machine but could do nothing about a 'moment' in the second moto where he was pitched onto the ground and out of seventh place on lap three. The Frenchman picked himself up to reach the flag in eighteenth and was the second highest Yamaha rider on the day behind Lieber in the overall standings. The Grand Prix of Trentino at the narrow and hard-packed Arco di Trento will bring the FIM series back together for round four and the first European event of the 2015 calendar on April 19th. "This morning I tried the normal tyre profile and it felt good but the track changed quite a lot before the first moto and it ended up not being the best choice. I didn't make a good start. I was pushing but missing traction. I tried to go faster and faster and finished sixth, which was OK. I changed to the scoop tyre for the second moto but the bike stopped twice on the sighting lap. We tried to fix the problem and it was running good when the gate dropped but then we missed some power. So it was a shame. I think I had the possibility to get on the podium today and we have to work for Arco. The team made a great job and I want to thank them for everything they did this weekend." | "I'm really disappointed. The first race was good and fourth was decent for me. I'm not sure what happened with the gate in the second but I hit it and started dead last. I made a stupid mistake and the bike was damaged a lot in the crash. I just couldn't see a hole that was there. I couldn't continue the moto and I hurt my leg a little bit." "I had a bad start in the first race but I knew I had a good physical condition and I could make some passes. In the second I wasn't away so well again but rode quite good for fifteen minutes and passed [Brian] Bogers until I had a problem with my front brake that stopped the front wheel from turning well. Anyway I'm really happy to be here at my first GP and to be in the top ten. I have something to build on and the bike was awesome, the team worked really hard." "The finish was nice in the first moto…but I was not happy with my riding. The second moto was better and I was running with Seewer, Covington and Gajser but then I had a really big crash after a jump and through the bumps. I stopped because the bar was damaged. I tried to go out again but it was difficult. I will work really hard for the next race in Italy." |
| race I | | 1 | Dylan Ferrandis | Kawasaki | FRA | 34'43.016 | | 2 | Pauls Jonass | KTM | LVA | 0'07.336 | | 3 | Max Anstie | Kawasaki | GBR | 0'12.925 | | 4 | Julien Lieber | Yamaha | BEL | 0'15.607 | | 5 | Jeremy Seewer | Suzuki | CHE | 0'21.082 | | 6 | Valentin Guillod | Yamaha | CHE | 0'24.902 | | 7 | Thomas Covington | Kawasaki | USA | 0'31.438 | | 8 | Benoit Paturel | Yamaha | FRA | 0'41.086 | | 9 | Brent Van Doninck | Yamaha | BEL | 00'42.377 | | 10 | Aleksandr Tonkov | Husqvarna | RUS | 0'57.878 | | 11 | Adam Sterry | KTM | GBR | 1'00.866 | | 12 | Tim Gajser | Honda | SVN | 1'01.420 | | 13 | Vsevolod Brylyakov | Honda | RUS | 1'06.218 | | 14 | Petar Petrov | KTM | BGR | 1'14.164 | | 15 | Brian Bogers | KTM | NLD | 1'15.061 | | race II | | 1 | Jeffrey Herlings | KTM | NLD | 35'11.306 | | 2 | Dylan Ferrandis | Kawasaki | FRA | 0'20.036 | | 3 | Pauls Jonass | KTM | LVA | 0'24.396 | | 4 | Tim Gajser | Honda | SVN | 0'27.742 | | 5 | Jeremy Seewer | Suzuki | CHE | 0'37.316 | | 6 | Aleksandr Tonkov | Husqvarna | RUS | 0'48.784 | | 7 | Thomas Covington | Kawasaki | USA | 0'55.339 | | 8 | Brian Bogers | KTM | NLD | 0'56.125 | | 9 | Ivo Monticelli | KTM | ITA | 1'07.365 | | 10 | Jens Getteman | Honda | BEL | 1'19.673 | | 11 | Adam Sterry | KTM | GBR | 1'24.279 | | 12 | Petar Petrov | KTM | BGR | 1'29.432 | | 13 | Ben Watson | KTM | GBR | 1'30.509 | | 14 | Vsevolod Brylyakov | Honda | RUS | 1'31.689 | | 15 | Roberts Justs | KTM | LVA | 1'46.386 | | 18 | Benoit Paturel | Yamaha | FRA | -1Laps |
| | | | | | Circuit Length:
. Weather:
Dry | | | | | | | 
