Team Suzuki Press Office – April 17.
Team Suzuki World MXGP’s Kevin Strijbos showed flashes of potential and competitiveness at Leon to take seventh position in the Qualification Heat race for the Grand Prix of Mexico today.
The 30 year old made a decent start on the works RM-Z450 in cloudy but hot conditions at the venue hosting the Mexican stop on the calendar for the third year in a row.
The Leon hard-pack presented a tough challenge through the rough and choppy soil that offered some variation in racing lines but pushed suspension set-up and the quest for traction to the fore. Many of the sections were characterised by deep ruts and some deceptive berms and the high altitude of the location meant further head-scratching for the teams in terms of the impact on engine performance.
Strijbos, who caught the eye with the second fastest chrono in Timed Practice to fill the same position in the start gate, harried the rear wheel of multi-world champion Tony Cairoli for fourth place in the early stages of the Heat. Lap-times were similar among the leaders and ‘22’ misjudged some of the track so could not get close enough to displace Cairoli and soon faced a threat from Max Nagl with five minutes remaining of the sprint; the German eventually ploughing to third place.
Changing lines and alternative options through the rhythm sections brought some interesting switches in the rankings and eventually less than 10 seconds split third to seventh. Strijbos conceded another place to defending world champion Romain Febvre, but rode to seventh and gained some momentum for the two Grand Prix motos on Sunday.
“Kevin had a good timed training, had a start that was not so bad but then made some mistakes that saw him drop to seventh while some other riders were pushing through,” commented General Manager Stefan Everts. “I think he would have been up to second if he had continued the early speed. We did some practice starts on the test track and changed to a first gear instead of the usual second gear and also changed the sprocket and those seemed to work. So we will see what we can do tomorrow.”
In MX2, Jeremy Seewer won a close battle with Vsevolod Brylyakov for third position on his RM-Z250. The Leon surface had been watered prior to the race and the Swiss didn't feel so confident or comfortable on some of the slicker sections. Third spot is still an effective ranking on the line for the two 30-minute and two-lap races tomorrow.
The Grand Prix motos start from 19.00 CET on Sunday.
Kevin Strijbos:
“Things went well in the Timed Practice and I was happy with the lap. The start and using first gear seemed to go better but I went a bit too wide on the second corner and lost a couple of places. I was chasing Tony but made some mistakes and lost the tow. I think if I can ride like I did in the first half of the race tomorrow then we will have some good possibilities. I need a similar start and we’ll see what happens.”
MXGP Qualification Heat: 1. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 24:11.002; 2. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:06.195; 3. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Husqvarna), +0:07.714; 4. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:11.931; 5. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), +0:13.024; 6. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +0:15.544; 7. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki World MXGP), +0:16.678; 8. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:30.277; 9. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), +0:36.778; 10. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), +0:38.393.
