Portuguese setback for 24MX Racing riders

Agueda - The sixth round of seventeen in the FIM MX1 World Championship dealt both Nikolaj Larsen and Santtu Tiainen an unfortunate blow. After claiming 17th in the opening moto in Agueda Tiainen chose not to start in the second sprint due to a painful knee. His team mate suffered a back injury on Saturday morning after crashing in the wave section. Although Larsen attempted to ride in qualifying and during warmup he realized that two GP motos were beyond his reach due to the discomfort and pain.

The sunny and hot conditions south of Porto seemed to please Finnish ace Santtu Tiainen. After a disappointing performance in the Open Dutch Championship in Gemert last week ST167 responded with solid riding on the bumpy and demanding Portuguese track on Saturday. Tiainen started the qualifying affair around 14th place behind Jonathan Barragan, dug deep and crossed the line in 15th. Unfortunately the sole 24MX Honda rider got caught up in a second corner scrap in the first heat. Down from 19th and after losing valuable time Santtu started pushing hard. Relentless work in the Portuguese heat eventually paid off for Tiainen who secured four championship points. Struggling to walk properly after the moto it was obvious that even the determined Finn needed to back out for the second race.

Santtu Tiainen: “I was quite happy about my riding on Saturday but I just got a bit unlucky today. In the second corner I sort of got stuck with Matiss Karro and twisted my knee. It was really, really painful! Still I managed to finish the race almost normally. We iced the knee in between the races and I received a painkilling injection. However the doctor adviced against starting in the second moto, franky it would have been stupid as well. I will get some more examinations done tomorrow, hopefully the damage will be okay.”

Nikolaj Larsen: “Already during free practice yesterday I went down and landed pretty hard. I tried to race but the pain was unbearable. Luckily the scan showed no broken bones, so probably It’s just a serious compression. I won the first round of the Danish championship two weeks ago and my speed was quite good in last week so I was really looking forward to this GP. I’m really bummed about the sitiatuon but this is just part of racing. ”

With limited action for the 24MX Honda Racing riders on Sunday it was team manager/owner Steven Lettani who for once received the most coverage! The 24MX Honda Racing boss joined Alessandro Lupino and Tommy Searle for the MX-Life studio show. Check the interview on http://www.mx-life.tv/ under MX GP of 2013 - Replay Studio Show.

FULL RESULTS ON PAGE TWO MX1 Race 1: 1. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), 39:41.179; 2. (BEL, ), +0:20.053; 3. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:36.700; 4. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Honda), +0:41.427; 5. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:44.140; 6. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +0:46.236; 7. Ken de Dycker (BEL, KTM), +1:19.715; 8. (ITA, Honda), +1:23.112; 9. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), +1:28.350; 10. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), +1:30.680; 11. Shaun Simpson (GBR, TM), +1:32.943; 12. Joel Roelants (BEL, Yamaha), +1:38.587; 13. (EST, Honda), +2:09.170; 14. Davide Guarneri (ITA, KTM), -1 lap(s); 15. Kasper Lynggaard (DEN, Yamaha), -1 lap(s); 16. Augusts Justs (LAT, Honda), -1 lap(s); 17. Santtu Tiainen (FIN, 24MX Honda Racing), -1 lap(s); 18. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), -1 lap(s); 19. Lauri Lehtla (EST, KTM), -1 lap(s); 20. Matiss Karro (LAT, KTM), -2 lap(s); 21. Hugo Santos (POR, KTM), -2 lap(s); 22. Jason Dougan (GBR, Honda), -14 lap(s); 23. Kenny Van Dueren (BEL, KTM), -21 lap(s);

Race 2: 1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 39:56.650; 2. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:03.804; 3. Ken de Dycker (BEL, KTM), +0:08.306; 4. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +0:08.912; 5. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), +0:21.757; 6. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:23.805; 7. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Honda), +0:28.000; 8. David Philippaerts (ITA, Honda), +0:33.464; 9. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), +0:39.969; 10. Shaun Simpson (GBR, TM), +0:51.773; 11. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), +0:53.152; 12. Tanel Leok (EST, Honda), +1:04.086; 13. Davide Guarneri (ITA, KTM), +1:08.748; 14. Joel Roelants (BEL, Yamaha), +1:38.697; 15. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), +1:48.052; 16. Augusts Justs (LAT, Honda), -1 lap(s); 17. Jason Dougan (GBR, Honda), -1 lap(s); 18. Hugo Santos (POR, KTM), -3 lap(s); 19. Kasper Lynggaard (DEN, Yamaha), -13 lap(s); 20. Lauri Lehtla (EST, KTM), -21 lap(s); DNS Santtu Tiainen (FIN, 24MX Honda Racing), DNS Nikolaj Larsen (DEN, 24MX Honda Racing)

MX1 GP classification Agueda: 1. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), 47 points; 2. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 45 p.; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), 38 p.; 4. Ken de Dycker (BEL, KTM), 34 p.; 5. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), 33 p.; 6. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Honda), 32 p.; 7. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, Kawasaki), 31 p.; 8. David Philippaerts (ITA, Honda), 26 p.; 9. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), 23 p.; 10. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), 22 p.; 11. Shaun Simpson (GBR, TM), 21 p.; 12. Tanel Leok (EST, Honda), 17 p.; 13. Joel Roelants (BEL, Yamaha), 16 p.; 14. Davide Guarneri (ITA, KTM), 15 p.; 15. Augusts Justs (LAT, Honda), 10 p.; 16. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), 9 p.; 17. Kasper Lynggaard (DEN, Yamaha), 8 p.; 18. Jason Dougan (GBR, Honda), 4 p.; 19. Santtu Tiainen (FIN, 24MX Honda Racing), 4 p.; 20. Hugo Santos (POR, KTM), 3 p.; 21. Lauri Lehtla (EST, KTM), 3 p.; 22. Matiss Karro (LAT, KTM), 1 p.; 23. Kenny Van Dueren (BEL, KTM), 0 p

FIM MX1 World Championship standings after 6 rounds: 1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 280 points; 2. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), 242 p.; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), 227 p.; 4. Ken de Dycker (BEL, KTM), 217 p.; 5. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), 183 p.; 6. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), 180 p.; 7. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Honda), 132 p.; 8. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), 131 p.; 9. David Philippaerts (ITA, Honda), 112 p.; 10. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, Kawasaki), 109 p.; 11. Tanel Leok (EST, Honda), 96 p.; 12. Shaun Simpson (GBR, TM), 93 p.; 13. Joel Roelants (BEL, Yamaha), 92 p.; 14. Xavier Boog (FRA, KTM), 90 p.; 15. Davide Guarneri (ITA, KTM), 89 p.; 16. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), 87 p.; 17. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), 67 p.; 18. Steven Frossard (FRA, Yamaha), 47 p.; 19. Augusts Justs (LAT, Honda), 43 p.; 20. Matiss Karro (LAT, KTM), 39 p.; 21. Jason Dougan (GBR, Honda), 19 p.; 22. Lauri Lehtla (EST, KTM), 12 p.; 23. Nikolaj Larsen (DEN, 24MX Honda Racing), 10 p.; 24. Santtu Tiainen (FIN, 24MX Honda Racing), 10 p.; 25. Kasper Lynggaard (DEN, Yamaha), 8 p.; 26. Kenny Van Dueren (BEL, KTM), 6 p.; 27. Nathan Watson (GBR, KTM), 6 p.; 28. Jens Getteman (BEL, 24MX Honda Racing), 6 p.; 29. Mikola Paschynskyi (UKR, KTM), 5 p.; 30. Jamie Law (GBR, KTM), 4 p.; 31. Hugo Santos (POR, KTM), 3 p.; 32. Marc de Reuver (NED, KTM), 2 p.; 33. Masanori Ito (JPN, Yamaha), 2 p.; 34. Fabio Ferrari (ITA, Honda), 1 p.; 35. Stefano Dami (ITA, Yamaha), 1 p.; 36. Ivo Steinbergs (LAT, KTM), 1 p.