Paulin soldiers through painful Dutch GP

Round 2 of the FIM MX World championship held at the ‘Euro
Circuit’ in Valkenswaard has been a painful outing for Yamaha Monster
Energy racer, Gautier Paulin.    The 21-year-old sustained a
strained mid to lower back muscles during the Sunday qualification race and
had was in a lot of discomfort going into the first Moto on Easter
Monday.

The Frenchman managed to fight through the pain on an intense and
demanding circuit and was in a podium position for half of the race until
he could no longer bare the pain and relinquished his podium position to
Tommy Searle.

Paulin once again had to block out the pain in moto 2 and well placed in
4^th before Arnaud Tonus and Belgian sand specialist Joel
Roelants caught and passed the Yamaha rider.

“I’m really disappointed about my back,” explained
Paulin “I obviously strained it during the qualification race because
I could hardly sleep on Sunday night and even the slightest moment
hurt.  We worked on the muscles before the races but I still had a lot
of pain and had to try and block it out of mind.  This was not the
easiest track to be riding defensive on and I was really looking forward to
getting a good result.  We have some time now to check the problem and
to be ready for Glen Helen in 3 weeks.”

Race results:

MX2 Race 1

1          Herlings,
Jeffrey        NED    KTM

2          Roczen,
Ken   GER     KTM

3          Searle,
Tommy           GBR
    Kawasaki

4          Tonus,
Arnaud           SUI
     Yamaha

5          Paulin,
Gautier           FRA
    Yamaha

6          Osborne,
Zachary      USA     Yamaha

7          Kullas,
Harri   FIN      Yamaha

8          Roelants, Joel
BEL     KTM

9          Aubin,
Nicolas           
FRA     KTM

10       Anstie, Max    GBR
    Kawasaki

MX2 Race 2

1          Herlings,
Jeffrey        NED    KTM

2          Roczen,
Ken   GER     KTM

3          Searle,
Tommy           GBR
    Kawasaki

4          Tonus,
Arnaud           SUI
     Yamaha

5          Roelants, Joel
BEL     KTM

6          Paulin,
Gautier           FRA
    Yamaha

7          Kullas,
Harri   FIN      Yamaha

8          Osborne,
Zachary      USA     Yamaha

9          Anstie,
Max    GBR     Kawasaki

10       Charlier, Christophe FRA
    Yamaha

MX2 GP Overall:

1          Herlings,
Jeffrey        NED   
KTM    50

2          Roczen,
Ken   GER     KTM    44

3          Searle,
Tommy           GBR
    Kawasaki       
40

4          Tonus,
Arnaud           SUI
    
Yamaha          36

5          Paulin,
Gautier           FRA
   
Yamaha          31

6          Roelants, Joel
BEL     KTM    29

7          Kullas,
Harri   FIN     
Yamaha          28

8          Osborne,
Zachary      USA    
Yamaha          28

9          Anstie,
Max    GBR    
Kawasaki        23

10       Larsen,
Nikolaj           DEN
   KTM    19

MX2 GP World Championship standings:

1          Roczen,
Ken   GER     94

2          Herlings,
J.      NED    86

3          Searle,
Tommy           GBR
    84

4          Tonus,
Arnaud           SUI
     67

5          Paulin,
G.        FRA    
65

6          Osborne,
Z.     USA     60

7          Anstie,
Max    GBR     51

8          Roelants, Joel
BEL     48

9          Kullas,
Harri   FIN      46

10       Aubin,
Nicolas           
FRA     36