Event Coverage

Pichon dominate the GP of Europe in Germany

Mickael Pichon was the big winner in the 5 th round of the MX1 world championship in Teutschenthal. The French Martin Honda rider arrived in Germany with a handicap of 27 points behind Stefan Everts in the championship classification in 2 nd position, but when Pichon left the race track on Sunday evening he reduced the gap about 18 points. Pichon took the pole position on Saturday and did a great job on Sunday with two awesome race victories. Australian Andrew Mc Farlane won his second GP 2005 in the MX2 class with a 1/3 result in both motos in front of a surprisingly Davide Guarneri and Alessio Chiodi.


Antoine Meo on his Factory Husqvarna

MX1 Race 1
In front of a huge crowd Pichon took the holeshot on a muddy and difficult track followed by Joel Smets and Antti Pyrhonen. Already in the third corner some riders got stuck, and in the middle of this bunch was Stefan Everts. But that was not the only bad luck for Everts, only one corner later he came into deep mud and crashed.


Everts with bad luck in Moto1 but a constant 2nd place in Moto2

It attended a long time till Everts could start his bike again. He was far behind everybody and the track was tough for passin so an 11 th place was the maximum when the chequered flag went down. Meanwhile Pichon and Smets could break away from the other riders easily. One reason for this was Pyrhonen in third place at the beginning of the race. Coppins in 4 th and Townley in 5 th were definite faster but couldn't pass the Finn in the first laps. In lap seven Coppins and Townley passed Pyrhonen back to back but at this time the gap to Smets was to big.


Joel Smets | overall 3rd place

Pyrhonen finally dropped back to 9 th position on his Factory – TM. Smets was passably able to follow Pichon about the whole distance but could never attack the French Honda star. At the end Pichon lay ahead of Smets, Townley and Coppins.

MX1 Race 2
For the second race the track dried up more and more. The holeshot went again to Pichon. This time followed by his big rival Stefan Everts. Everts rode very aggressive in the first lap and tried to pass Pichon after some corners. As a result of Everts move they clashed. Pichon kept his lead but Evrts dropped back to 6 th position.


Mickael Pichon with 2 awesome victories

Inimitable Everts got back into 2 nd position during half a lap but Pichon although pulled away with a gap of 7 to 8 secundes for the rest of the race. Both riders showed MotoCross at its best. After a DNF in the first heat Steve Ramon finished in a strong 3 rd position coming from 7 th place after lap one. Bad luck for Ramon's KTM Factory team mate Ben Townley. After the start in 3 rd position he dropped back to 14 th because of technical problems. Mentionable was the riding of Ken de Dijcker. The Sarholz Honda rider finished in 6 th position behind Tanel Leok. On his way from 13 th to 6 th position he passed riders like Smets and Brian Jorgensen. The overall victory went to Pichon in front of Coppins (4/4) and Smets (2/8). In MX1 class Germany was represented only by one rider. Josef Dobes is still injured and Daniel Siel was not able to qualify himself for Sunday races.


Collin Dugmore celebrated his comeback after his wrist injury.


So Collin Dugmore was the only German rider and finished in 24 th and 26 th position without a chance of points. It was his first race this year after a long injury break.

MX2 Race 1
Both races in the MX2 category were absolute exiting for riders and fans. In the first race Andrew McFarlane took the lead ahead of championship leader Antonio Cairoli, David Phillippaerts, Cedric Melotte, Alessio Chiodi and Stephen Sword. Those six riders pulled away from all other riders and fought for the win. The bigger part of the race they were apart by only few secondes. Only Melotte could pass Philippaerts in lap two, the other riders finished like they were positioned in lap one. But the battle between McFarlane and Cairoli in the last two laps was really awesome. Again and again Cairoli attacked the leader but McFarlane stayed cool and win only half a seconde before Cairoli.


Max Nagl with a DNF in Moto1 and a top ten results in Moto2

Publics favourite Max Nagl crashed in lap one and could start his bike after some laps so the hunt for points was over early. The second German rider, Marcus Schifffer, rode well and finished in 22 nd position outside the points.


Davide Guarneri was the surprise winner in Moto2 of the MX2 Class.

MX2 Race 2
The second race saw an armada of Yamahas in front. Guarneri, McFarlane, Chiodi, Melotte and Billy Mackenzie led the rest of the participants through the first laps. Kawasaki's Stephen Sword begun the race in 2 nd position but rode to aggressive and dropped back to 10 th position in lap one. Cairol showed some nerves and crashed in a slow but slippery corner after a bad start. Without attracting attention he finished in 16 th position and leads the championship table after Teutschenthal with only one point in front of Chiodi. After twenty minutes a four man battle between Guarneri, McFarlane, Melotte and Chiodi caught the concentration of an enthused crowd. In lap twelve Melotte crashed and dropped back to 10 th position. Till the last lap the three other Yamaha riders battled intensive for the victory and surprisingly Davide Guarneri took his first ever GP race win.


Teammates McFarlane and Chico Chiodi

After a small mistake in the last lap McFarlane lost his 2 nd place to Chiodi and finished in 3 rd. That was enough to win the MX2 overall in Teutschenthal. Germans Max Nagl finished the second heat in 10 th position after an impressive performance. After Nagl get passed by his Kosak KTM team mate Aigar Leok he was able to keep the pace of Leok and passed some riders, in the last lap even Cedric Melotte. Schiffer finished again in 22 nd position and showed that he is a hopeful German talent for the future.