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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

MXGP, Kegums, KEGUMS (LAT), 15 april 2018

Third place moto for Clement Desalle in Portugal

Clement Desalle of the Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team maintained his run of success with another third-placed finish in the Portuguese round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Agueda.

The glorious track in the hills around thirty kilometres from the Atlantic coastline had been battered with storms for nearly a month before the event, but both the local organisation and the series promoters worked non-stop in the days preceding the event to successfully prepare a surface worthy of the world series and were rewarded with superb racing. Unfortunately Desalle was one of the ill-fated riders who was affected by the uncertain climatic conditions and had to retire from third place in the opening moto, but he rebounded defiantly in race two with a forceful ride to third place. The first moto zero scoreline has seen him relinquish third in the series standings but with a deficit of just four points both rider and team remain confident that they can regain the position in two weeks time at Orlyonok in Russia, where they won the GP last year.
 
Clement Desalle: “It was a tough day as I had to retire in the first moto. I had a pretty good start and was third until I had to stop after ten minutes. I recovered mentally for the second race but I got wheelspin on the metal plate; thankfully I had an inside gate so I could do some good moves in the first turn to come out in fourth place. I finished third despite a small mistake at the end of the race and at least I brought home a moto podium. We didn’t know what we would find here as they have had a lot of rain in Portugal; I must say that they did a great job to prepare the track between the races.”
 
KRT teammate Julien Lieber shrugged off a heavy fall, in which he was trapped beneath his machine, from the previous day to finish tenth in race one and he holds eleventh place in the series standings, whilst Alessandro Lupino and Maxime Desprey of Gebben Van Venrooy Kawasaki Racing battled consistently all weekend to each score world championship points in both motos to be classified fifteenth and sixteenth.