Frossard excels for second victory of the season‏

Monster Energy Yamahas Steven Frossard scored his
first shut-out of the season by taking the factory YZ450FM to victory in
both motos at Uddevalla for the Grand Prix of Sweden. The Frenchman
celebrated his second triumph of what is becoming a standout 2011 maiden
campaign in MX1-GP.



The visit to Scandinavia and round eight of fifteen
reactivated the series after a one-week break and started another
intense spell of three races in three weeks. Uddevalla was covered by
cloudy but bright skies and the track benefited from natural watering of
showers on Saturday and early Sunday morning. The layout boasted
several small alterations and the terrain was partially loose with the
top-soil barely covering a hard and slippery surface.
Frossard was competing at the site of his very first career success in
2010 in the MX2-GP class and his decent feeling with a tricky track was
assisted by two decent starts. The 23 year old watched by 24,000
spectators - was lucky not to become a victim of Antonio Cairolis second
corner crash (even if he was caught on the left shoulder by the
incident) at the beginning of the first moto and then bided his time for
virtually the entire race distance behind Evgeny Bobryshev before
moving past the Russian with two laps to go before the chequered flag.
Frossard led the field from start to finish in the second outing and
comfortably controlled a gap over Cairoli.

Team-mate David Philippaerts was unfortunate. The Italians front brake was rendered useless by a flying rock in the first moto and the former world champion had to endure a large phase of the race using only the rear stopper. Philippaerts was able to enjoy a run-free in the second race (after an excellent launch alongside Frossard from the gate) and beat three other riders to claim third position and give the team two machines inside the Moto2 winners circle. Third MX1 representative Anthony Boissiere was twelfth overall. His first moto position of eleventh his better finish of the day compared to the fifteenth of the second. In the points table Frossard has firmly pushed himself back into contention for the world championship. He is third but only 22 points (the previous gap was 35) away from the red plate he previously wore at round three. Philippaerts is sixth and 25 points from the top four while Boissiere is fourteenth. Yamaha are second by just nine points - and vying for the lead in the manufacturers standings. The Grand Prix paddock will now head south to Teutschenthal in Germany and then east across to Kegums in Latvia. The eastern European jaunt will bring the series to round ten and complete two-thirds of the calendar.

Steven Frossard: It feels really good to win again. I like this track even if it is slippery and difficult! I tried to stay focussed and ride calmly and my good starts helped a lot with this. It wasnt easy out there but it was easier thanks to that. I was lucky at the start of the first moto because I almost crashed with Antonio and I actually hit my shoulder when it happened. It has been difficult to keep consistent because of my hand injury but it is getting better all the time. We made a couple of small changes on the bike this weekend but I felt really good on the YZ450FM. Cairoli was fast in the second moto but I pushed hard in the beginning because I knew he would be strong towards the end. David Philippaerts: The second race was good. De Dycker passed me for third at one point but I kept patient because I knew he wouldnt have the condition for the full forty minutes. Today was not really my day. This is not really my track and I struggled to find grip all weekend. In the first moto the problem with the brake meant that it was a very hard to complete the race. I feel that a podium would have been possible today but motocross can be like this. We will hope for better in the next race.