The elegant Belgian, whose early season form was dramatically affected by serious injury, continues to rebuild towards his best form and already showed good speed as he raced to third place in the qualification race, but he then faced a tough ride up the leaderboard after emerging from the initial sort-out in eighth place; maintaining a podium pace to the end of the moto, he eventually crossed the line fifth. He was even more impressive in race two to take over fourth place on the sixth lap and relentlessly chase the leaders to the chequered flag. Despite his early season losses Clement is now ninth in the series points standings, just four points away from eighth.
Teammate Jordi Tixier also showed good speed all weekend. This was emphasised when he posted second fastest time in the practice session, but a lack of fortune in the always tricky opening turn at Loket meant that he was forced to charge through the pack in each race. He advanced strongly from tenth to seventh in the opening GP moto before conceding one place three laps from the end and was even stronger in race two as he advanced from tenth to finish sixth. This earnt sixth overall in the GP.
Tommy Searle of Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki made it three green machines in the top eight as he too overcame disappointing starts to move through the pack. In the first race he advanced from eleventh to ninth and in race two advanced from an initial twelfth to again take the chequered flag ninth. Eighth overall in the GP Tommy is now closing in on the series top ten and is only twelve points behind tenth.
Clement Desalle: “It’s easy to explain how my weekend went; I had some bad starts, and then made many passes to come back in the top five with a third in the qualifying race, then a fifth and a fourth position in the GP motos. In the first race I made some good moves in the first corners to come back into the top ten, and never stop pushing to get a fifth at the end of the race. My start was a little bit better in the second race and I recovered to fourth to finish just off the podium. The final result is not so bad considering my position in the first corner. We did some testing during the summer break and I feel some improvements in the settings; I also know that I can continue to make more progress. Next weekend will be my home GP; it will be nice to see the fans, although it would be nice to go to some other place, even if I like riding in the sand.”
Jordi Tixier: “ I’m happy to get this good result; it shows that we’re doing a good job. I had a very good result in the timed practice period with a second position, so the speed is there even if I made some mistakes in the qualifying race. I never started in the top fifteen today and we need to work on that point, but then I was able to come back to eighth and sixth. In the first moto I couldn’t keep the rhythm in the last ten minutes and lost one position, but in the second race I was stronger; for sure the track was slippery after the rain, but here it’s not such a problem when it’s raining. Now we’ll move to Belgium; we’ve already been working with the team to prepare the bike for the sand.”
Tommy Searle: “We had no real break in the past month with the British championship races, and it’s been a long season as we’re now moving to Belgium. This weekend was a solid one for me with two top ten results, ninth in both races and qualification after a sixth position in the timed practice period. The starts were not too bad; I got good jumps out of the gate but in the first corner it was not easy to find the way. We all did the best we could and it's been a while since I had such a consistent weekend. I made some good passes, an d that’s never easy on this track; sometimes for sure I could pass sooner but the racing was very close and overall it was a good weekend.”