The weekend began well for the team with Frossard feeling comfortable on the excellent racing surface in southern England. The 24 year old fought with Christophe Pourcel for pole position across the spectacular jumps and carved, soft mud that permitted different, grippy line choice before settling for second position without risk in the final two laps.
Bright skies greeted race-day and Frossard led almost all of the opening moto ahead of Pourcel. He had collided with a fence post and ripped off the right radiator shroud earlier in the sprint and this had an effect on his riding. ‘183’ broke too hard into a tight right turn four laps from the flag and was passed by his countryman. He then went on the attack but was able to draw up to the rear wheel of the former world champion.
Frossard led the first fifteen minutes of the second moto until a dramatic crash between Billy Mackenzie and Tanel Leok led to the race being stopped. On the restart Frossard worked his way into third and then demoted Pourcel to reach second place. Sadly Antonio Cairoli was beyond reach. With his brace of runner-up positions Frossard earned the lower step of the rostrum but was consistently quick and close to victory all through the event.
The team were at full strength in the UK thanks to the transfer of 2010 MX3 World Champion Carlos Campano to the awning. The Spaniard fills David Philippaerts’ saddle for the final three events of the series and got off to a positive start by equalling his best ever moto result. Campano was motivated, strong and aggressive. He had some bad luck in the first moto when he slipped off on the first corner but set some impressive lap-times to recover back to fifteenth. In the second race he started brilliantly and was pressuring Shaun Simpson for second place until the premature halt. In the ‘third’ moto the 25 year old from Sevilla rode to sixth position to match a previous best obtained in 2009. Campano was tenth overall.
Anthony Boissiere, currently fifteenth in the MX1 standings, was able to post scores of tenth and ninth for a very solid seventh overall at Matterley; it was the Frenchman’s highest classification of the year.
Frossard trails world champion Tony Cairoli by 82 points but with Clement Desalle and Evgeny Bobryshev set to miss the rest of the season through injury he defends a gap of 62 over Max Nagl in fourth. Grand Prix meetings in Germany (Gaildorf) and Italy (Fermo) remain and a maximum of 100 points still to win.
Steven Frossard, 3rd position:
“Yesterday I had a great race with Christophe and it was a lot of fun to ride like this. This is the best track this year. In the first moto I made the holeshot and had a little problem with my arm and I also broke the radiator shroud when I hit a post. It affected my riding a little bit. I led for thirty minutes but made a mistake in one of the corners and then pushed really hard to try and win the moto. I made a great start in the second moto and went to the front but after fifteen minutes we had to stop. We went again and I was third but I think I pushed a bit too much and felt tired. Cairoli was fast and I couldn’t catch him. In the beginning I was trying to think GP by GP but now my goal is to finish second. It is a bit difficult because everyone says I will finish there, so I want to keep focussed. I am happy with the way the championship is going but at the start of the year I was close to Antonio and Desalle but lost points through some mistakes. I am learning and will improve on this for next year.”
Carlos Campano, 10th position:
“I’m happy. In the first race I had a crash on the first corner and was far behind but I found a good rhythm and could come back to fifteenth. I felt good on the bike and the track and was motivated for the second moto. I started ahead and slotted into third. I was on the point of taking second but then they stopped the race. I hoped I might be able to make the same start but it didn’t really happen. I got stuck behind Goncalves and Barragan and Nagl caught us. I finally passed Goncalves and pushed hard to get behind Nagl but could get him at the end. I think this was an important forward step and I loved the bike and the track. I don’t notice so much difference with the factory bike and my YZ450F but at the end of the motos when the track is really rough then I can really attack the other riders and I am far less on the limit compared to the other. It means less mistakes. I have to thank the team for all their work. They didn’t put any pressure on me and I did the best I could. I had a lot of problems this year and I am really grateful for this opportunity.”
Race 1 - 18 Laps
2 Steven Frossard Yamaha FRA 0'02.198
3 Antonio Cairoli KTM ITA 0'09.492
4 Tanel Leok TM EST 0'11.368
5 Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 0'28.223
6 Rui Goncalves Honda POR 0'45.513
7 Billy MacKenzie Kawasaki GBR 0'48.209
8 Davide Guarneri Kawasaki ITA 0'50.811
9 Bradley Anderson Honda GBR 0'53.186
10 Anthony Boissière Yamaha FRA 0'56.013
11 Xavier Boog Kawasaki FRA 0'56.746
12 Gregory Aranda Kawasaki FRA 1'00.278
13 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 1'04.001
14 Jonathan Barragan Kawasaki ESP 1'23.532
15 Carlos Campano Yamaha ESP 1'25.728
16 Shaun Simpson Honda GBR 1'30.755
17 Tom Church CCM GBR 1'42.349
18 Martin Barr KTM GBR 1'47.141
19 Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA 1'48.392
20 Gert Krestinov Kawasaki EST 1'49.035
Race 2 - 18 Laps
1 Antonio Cairoli KTM ITA 41'03.052
2 Steven Frossard Yamaha FRA 0'10.675
3 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'27.600
4 Jonathan Barragan Kawasaki ESP 0'35.024
5 Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 0'39.874
6 Carlos Campano Yamaha ESP 0'42.526
7 Bradley Anderson Honda GBR 0'45.116
8 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 0'53.694
9 Anthony Boissière Yamaha FRA 1'10.209
10 Shaun Simpson Honda GBR 1'21.384
11 Davide Guarneri Kawasaki ITA 1'31.942
12 Gregory Aranda Kawasaki FRA 1'46.935
13 Matthias Walkner KTM AUT 1'54.456
14 Rui Goncalves Honda POR 2'30.734
15 Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA -1 Laps
16 Marcus Schiffer Suzuki GER -1 Laps
17 Gunter Schmidinger Honda AUT -1 Laps
18 Gert Krestinov Kawasaki EST -1 Laps
19 Herjan Brakke Yamaha NED -1 Laps
20 Alex Snow KTM GBR -1 Laps
Images and Content credits: Yamaha Racing
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