The Frenchman quickly took over sixth place through the first half of the twenty-minute-plus-two-lap Qualifying moto in a rapid-moving leaderboard with all of the series front-runners in contention. As ever he maintained the pressure on the rider ahead of him, eventually soaring through to fifth with a scintillating run through the waves on the eighth of twelve laps before running out of time to close down the leaders.
Romain Febvre: « The track is partly sandy and partly hardpack so it’s not easy to find the best set-up. My start was average and there were not so many lines so I lost time to come back to fifth, and then the riders in front of me were too far. I'm a little frustrated with today; let’s hope it will be different tomorrow as the conditions could be very different if some rain is coming."
KRT teammate Mitch Evans held a solid twelfth for most of the Qualifying race before a slight error three laps from the end cost the Australian three positions.
Big Van World MTX Kawasaki’s Jack Chambers scored two championship points as he raced top-ten throughout to finish ninth, his best result of the season to date, in Qualifying for tomorrow's FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship GP.
Jack Chambers: "Ninth is my best Qualifying so far so it's a good set-up for gate-pick tomorrow. The track's a lot more sandy than anything we raced so far this year, which I like. I went home to Florida this week and got the work done with practice on tracks I grew up on. The next stint over here will be four-to-five months so it was good to see my family and relax at the lake in the evening too. I only got into the hotel late last night after a couple of delayed flights so I had a little jet-lag this morning but I was stoked at my energy levels this afternoon; the track's pretty fast and there's a couple of place I need to pick up on but I'll get rested-up tonight and will be 100% for tomorrow."
F&H Kawasaki Racing Team's Kevin Horgmo moved confidently from twelfth to ninth by half-distance before pulling out of the race. The team decided that David Braceras should sit out the Latvian GP following a midweek practice crash; the Spaniard was only shaken with no broken bones and expects to return to racing next weekend in Germany.
BUD Racing Kawasaki's Quentin Marc Prugnières, dealt a central gate from Qualifying after a mid-session crash, advanced from an initial fourteenth to ninth with a number of impressive passes in the first moto of the FIM European EMX250 Championship round.
Quentin Marc Prugnières: « I wasn’t able to ride smooth today; the track felt different than usual here and, even though I gained several positions during the first moto, I’m not really satisfied but I’m already focused to do better tomorrow."