Gautier Paulin close to victory at home GP.

Date 6 June 2011

A massive 30.000 partisan crowd turned out to support their fellow
countryman Gautier Paulin at round 5 of the FIM Motocross World
championship at  the spectacular St Jean d’Angely circuit over
the weekend. 

The friendly and likable Yamaha Monster Energy racer did not disappoint
as he challenged championship leader Ken Roczen in the opening laps of Moto
1 and took the lead from the German much to the delight of the French
spectators.  Roczen retaliated a lap later with Paulin chasing his
challenger over the rutted and technical circuit and then had to settle for
second position.

As track conditions dried up somewhat,  a nail-biting moto 2 was
thrown wide open when Roczen crashed on the opening lap.   Paulin
initially completed a four man train of Searle, Herlings and Osborne and
then he made his move on the American to move into 3^rd spot
which at that stage placed him as virtual GP winner.  He was setting
his sights on Searle when Osborne retaliated and broke Paulin’s
rythym.  With Searle taking over the lead from Herlings, Paulin put in
a last minute spurt to challenge Osborne but it was too little too late
however Paulin claimed his second consecutive podium of the season and his
first ever in France. 

Gautier Paulin: “I feel much better than I did in Brazil. I am
enjoying my riding now and can play around with the bike a lot more. It was
bad that Ken had a crash but it meant a change for all of us. I was feeling
fast but I made some mistakes in the second moto and couldn’t make
the passes I wanted. I was close but not in touching distance. Zach was
really fast and the lap-times were coming down. It was great out there. I
think a lot of riders were making mistakes. The track was slippery and in
some parts very hard and it was tough on the up-hills with the 250 because
a mistake at the bottom would ruin a whole section. Anyway things are
getting better for me. This was my first podium in France and Im really
happy about that. In the end another good result to push on and keep being
consistent.”

The GP schedule moves to Agueda in Portugal on the 11-12 June.

Race results:

MX2 Race 1:

1       Roczen, Ken GER   
KTM

2       Paulin,
Gautier       FRA    Yamaha

3       Osborne, Zachary   USA
   Yamaha

4       Searle,
Tommy      GBR   Kawasaki

5       Tonus,
Arnaud       SUI    Yamaha

6       Aubin,
Nicolas        FRA    KTM

7       Herlings,
Jeffrey     NED    KTM

8       Roelants,
Joel       BEL    KTM

9       Banks-Browne,
Elliott       GBR   Honda

10      Kullas, Harri FIN    
Yamaha

MX2 Race 2:

1       Searle,
Tommy      GBR   Kawasaki

2       Herlings,
Jeffrey     NED    KTM

3       Osborne, Zachary   USA
   Yamaha

4       Paulin,
Gautier       FRA    Yamaha

5       Aubin,
Nicolas        FRA    KTM

6       Anstie, Max  GBR  
Kawasaki

7       Tonus,
Arnaud       SUI    Yamaha

8       Charlier,
Christophe        FRA   
Yamaha

9       Kullas, Harri FIN
    Yamaha

10      Roelants,
Joel       BEL    KTM

MX2 GP Overall:

1       Searle,
Tommy      GBR  
Kawasaki     43

2       Osborne, Zachary   USA
   Yamaha       40

3       Paulin,
Gautier       FRA   
Yamaha       40

4       Herlings,
Jeffrey     NED    KTM   36

5       Roczen, Ken GER   
KTM   35

6       Aubin,
Nicolas        FRA   
KTM   31

7       Tonus,
Arnaud       SUI   
Yamaha       30

8       Roelants,
Joel       BEL    KTM  
24

9       Kullas, Harri FIN
    Yamaha       23

10      Anstie, Max  GBR  
Kawasaki     19

MX2 World championship standings:

1       Roczen, Ken GER   
226

2       Herlings, J.   NED
   213

3       Searle,
Tommy      GBR   199

4       Osborne, Z.  USA   
162

5       Paulin, G.    
FRA    160

6       Tonus,
Arnaud       SUI    138

7       Anstie, Max  GBR  
135

8       Kullas, Harri FIN
    119

9       Roelants,
Joel       BEL    114

10      Aubin,
Nicolas        FRA    104