Clement Desalle dominated qualification on his works RM-Z450 at the U.S. Grand Prix at Glen Helen for his first pole position since the 2010 Grand Prix of Czech Republic.
The Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MX1 rider smoothly stretched a winning margin of almost 12 seconds over the rest of the field at the third round of the FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship.
After a cloudy and cool start to the Grand Prix, sunshine finally broke through in the afternoon and pushed up the temperatures. The new layout at Glen Helen on the foot of the San Bernardino mountains in California still provided one of the longest laps on the World Championship calendar.
Desalle was in no mood to dally on the RM-Z450 and swiftly overtook Evgeny Bobryshev to comfortably forge a lead in which he could circulate alone. The Belgian duly picked up his first ‘Lovemytime’ award since last August and now has first choice in the gate for one of the fastest starts the riders will face all year. Team mate Steve Ramon pushed through top-10 traffic to finish ninth by the end of the 20 minute and 2 lap sprint.
Rain is forecast for the duration of race-day tomorrow.
Clement Desalle:
“The track is long with lots of jumps and it can be a bit dangerous. I started in fourth or fifth and got into second on the first lap. I focussed only on my riding and it brought me up to a moment when I could make a pass and after that it was pretty easy. It is not so fast in places but it feels like a very long lap here; the downhill wave section is special. I will do my best to win tomorrow and keep on two wheels.”
Steve Ramon:
“It was good today, right through from timed practice. We hardly had to change anything on the bike and I felt better physically than I have for the last few weeks. I had a good start in the Heat race but I was behind Goncalves for too long and lost too much energy. It was difficult to pass out there and the only way was to close the door. I lost my rhythm for a little bit as I looked for some more lines but it was OK in the end. We will have two long motos tomorrow but I am looking forward to them.”
MX1 Qualification Heat: 1. Clement Desalle (BEL, Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MX1), 28:10.073; 2. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), +0:11.885; 3. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:16.760; 4. Steven Frossard (FRA, Yamaha), +0:20.475; 5. Rui Goncalves (POR, Honda), +0:21.785; 6. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), +0:25.709; 7. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:26.710; 8. Anthony Boissiere (FRA, Yamaha), +0:27.943; 9. Steve Ramon (BEL, Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MX1), +0:33.437; 10. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, Kawasaki), +0:40.419.
