Van Horebeek recovers to fourth overall in Finland

Jeremy Van Horebeek only just missed out on extending his remarkable run of podium results in the 2014 FIM Motocross World Championship as the Belgian finished fourth overall at Hyvinkää for the Grand Prix of Finland. JVH made a very rare mistake that dropped him from second place to almost outside the top twenty during the second moto at the short, compact and largely flat venue close to Helsinki but rallied hard to rise to tenth position in a good ‘salvage operation’.

17,000 spectators surrounded the difficult sand where decent summer temperatures and good racing conditions made for a positive thirteenth round of seventeen in the FIM series and the MXGP premier class. Hyvinkää was tough due to the many short bumps and hard base of the sand. Some sections could be attacked in typical ‘sandy style’ others required a more cautious approach.

Van Horebeek rode to second position on Saturday and for the qualification heat to ensure the same pick in the gate for Sunday’s two thirty minute and two lap motos. The Grand Prix transformed into a duel between the principal title rivals as JVH faced up to reigning champion and points leader Tony Cairoli.

The first race was owned by Cairoli. Van Horebeek remained close in the opening stages but was then mindful of the exceeding his limit negotiating a track that he described as “heavy”. Neither Max Nagl nor Steven Frossard could come close from third position and the Belgian posted his ninth runner-up moto result from the twenty-five run so far. He was trailing Cairoli again in the second moto when a mistake caused a crash, a headache and a damaged motorcycle. He pitted to fix a bent radiator shroud and then started a recovery trawl from eighteenth position all the way up to tenth place and only just missed out on a twelfth consecutive podium celebration by just one point.

David Philippaerts took his DP19 Racing Yamaha YZ450F to eighth position overall and was the second of three Yamaha riders in the final top ten. The Italian was part of the Motocross of Nations Team Italia presentation on Saturday where he is set to take his new truck and set-up to Kegums in Latvia for the historic annual racing bonanza at the end of September. Back on the Finnish sand however the former world champion was trying to deal with the tough and sketchy nature of the track. He barrelled his way to ninth place in Moto1 and won a fiercely contested skirmish with Matiss Karro. During Moto2 he was again with the Estonian and should have scored eighth place but was relegated one slot to ninth by Ken De Dycker on the last lap.

Bike it Yamaha Cosworth’s Rui Gonçalves posted his best qualification finish of the season so far with fourth place on Saturday. The Portuguese had almost recovered from his virus suffered the previous weekend in Sweden and being a competent sand rider was relishing the prospect of attacking Hyvinkää; almost a shorter and shallower warm-up for ‘real’ sand to be found at Lommel for the Belgian Grand Prix next month. In Finland Rui rode the YZ450F to ninth in the GP classification and his excellent sixth place in the second moto represented his best of the season and since joining the British Yamaha crew.

With thirteen rounds full on the championship sheet for MXGP the table currently shows Van Horebeek 62 points behind Cairoli with Philippaerts in eighth and Gonçalves in eleventh. The Grand Prix of Czech Republic at the stony and windy venue of Loket on July 27th means a trip to a favoured course for Van Horebeek and also Philippaerts and will be the penultimate meeting in Europe this year.