The French 21 years old had only limited opportunities to practice during the week before the race as he inevitably felt some pain in the shoulder following his comeback race in Latvia so he sensibly took it relatively easy during qualification at the Teutschenthal track near Halle to earn fifth choice of gate for the two GP races. He showed the power of the KX250F-SR to holeshot the opening moto and lead for six laps before crossing the finishing line a clear second to the current series leader. Another good start in race two saw Dylan hold second place for eleven laps and lead for two laps before easing his pace in the closing stages to ensure a safe third place finish. The combination of the two moto results gave him second overall in the GP and he has moved back to within twelve points of the series top ten despite missing four of the seven GPs to date due to his injury.
Vsevolod Brylyakov of Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki showed good speed in the practice sessions to post the eighth fastest time, but a blameless crash in the qualifying race left him with fifteenth choice of gate for the GP motos. Initially eleventh in the opening moto the Russian advanced to ninth by the finish and followed this up with a strong ride from thirteenth to eighth in race two for seventh overall in the GP. He now holds eighth place in the championship standings.
Petar Petrov of the Monster Energy Kawasaki MX2 Racing Team suffered a thumb injury during the timed practice session on Saturday and he raced in great pain for the remainder of the weekend. Nevertheless he raced bravely from nineteenth to thirteenth in the opening GP moto and from twenty-third to eleventh in race two to maintain his championship challenge; despite dropping two places in the championship standings he is only three points from fourth and should be ready to regain lost ground next weekend in Italy.
Dylan Ferrandis: “It was a good weekend, even if I’m not yet at my best level. After Latvia I was unable to do any activities for two days, but hopefully I will feel better tonight and we’ll be able to do some testing this week. Due to my injury we had no time to test on hard tracks before coming here, and all weekend long we worked with the team on the settings of the bike. I got two holeshots this weekend and narrowly missed the third one, and then did good races but never took any risks. I wasn’t confident on Saturday but today was better and now I just need some more weeks to be back at my best level.”
Vsevolod Brylyakov: “The track was very difficult with deep ruts, but at the same time it was technical; to be honest I never felt really comfortable on it, but it was OK. The qualifying race wasn’t easy; I got a bad start and then crashed on a triple jump when I hit the back wheel of another rider. I had to fight back, but it was pretty difficult to pass and I only had the fifteenth gate for the GP races. Ninth and eighth in the races wasn’t too bad, and I’m quite happy with these consistent races after the bad luck I suffered in Latvia. I’m building up again, got two strong finishes and now we need to continue testing and improve my riding.”
Petar Petrov: “Even though I didn't crash I hurt my thumb pretty bad during the timed practice sessions and in the qualified race it was painful. This morning I didn’t know if I could race as the thumb was swollen so I had an injection before the race; it was not too bad at the beginning, but then it was really bad by the end of the first race. I just tried to salvage some points. After the race I had to put a lot of ice on it and for the second moto I didn’t take so much painkillers as I felt dizzy and couldn’t focus the way I wanted. Now I go back home to recover before Italy; I managed to get some good points and that’s part of the sport.”