Philippaerts dominates MX1 qualifying as injured Cairoli pulls out

The British GP’s qualifying took place under perfect conditions today at Mallory Park with Philippaerts grabbing his second season’s pole and Musquin winning the MX2 qualifying at his maiden factory KTM appearance.

It was a dramatic qualifying for Cairoli, who was crashed at the start of the MX1 heat and pulled out with several bruises.

MX1
Back to action after a week break following Bellpuig, Yamaha Monster Energy Motocross’ Philippaerts brought his works bike back to pole after his first season’s qualifying moto win at Faenza. With less pain to his broken left index, the defending Champion put in a dominant performance as he led all 13 laps while Italian countryman Cairoli did not even see the end of lap one.

The Yamaha Red Bull De Carli racer collided with Mackenzie and that caused a group crash with the two time MX2 Champion pulling off the heat in pain. Several bruises on his body –especially the left wrist and back areas- were found by the medical staff as the Championship leader is due to race tomorrow.

Mickael Pichon, replacing the injured riders of Martin Honda Team, took a brilliant second as he is considered a threat by poleman Philippaerts in the quest for tomorrow’s win.

Coppins placed the second Yamaha Monster Energy Motocross machine in third ahead of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Nagl.

A technical problem affecting Aprilia Racing’s Priem saw the Belgian hand the fifth spot to Aranda.

Several crashes resulted in an 11th place finish for Spanish GP winner Barragan who ended just ahead of Billy Mackenzie. De Dycker struggled through the pain to finish 15th – he has an injured shoulder and a fractured right hand.

MX1 Qualifying Race top ten: 1. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), 25:19.118; ; 2. Mickael Pichon (FRA, Honda), +0:04.606; 3. Joshua Coppins (NZL, Yamaha), +0:15.130; 4. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), +0:20.387; 5. Gregory Aranda (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:36.897; 6. Clement Desalle (BEL, Honda), +0:37.732; 7. Aigar Leok (EST, TM), +0:40.611; 8. Gareth Swanepoel (RSA, Kawasaki), +0:43.382; 9. Kristian Whatley (GBR, CCM), +0:45.533; 10. Carl Nunn (GBR, Suzuki), +0:46.722;

MX2
A thrilling MX2 qualifying was dominated by Musquin who showed an impressive speed despite this being his maiden appearance on the factory KTM machine. The Championship leader left runner up Guarneri behind with a five second gap as the Italian struggled to keep up with Musquin.

Yamaha Monster Energy Ricci Motocross’ Guarneri remained a steady second to Musquin as 3C Racing Yamaha’s Monni lost the third place with only three laps to go.

As Monni dropped down to fourth, CLS’ Frossard secured the third place after recovering from the bottom of the top five.

Championship runner up Paulin headed a Frenchmen trio completed by Boissiere and Larrieu. Roczen was eighth.

Osborne, back from Agueda’s wrist injury, was 15th ahead of Goncalves. The latter crashed in the opening lap and recovered from dead last.

MX2 Qualifying Race top ten: 1. Marvin Musquin (FRA, KTM), 25:14.266; ; 2. Davide Guarneri (ITA, Yamaha), +0:05.017; 3. Steven Frossard (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:09.644; 4. Manuel Monni (ITA, Yamaha), +0:10.548; 5. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:14.359; 6. Anthony Boissiere (FRA, KTM), +0:29.995; 7. Loic Larrieu (FRA, Yamaha), +0:30.891; 8. Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki), +0:31.042; 9. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Yamaha), +0:38.000; 10. Dennis Verbruggen (BEL, Honda), +0:41.251;

VETERANS
 FIM Veterans’ World Cup leader Peter Iven looks like willing to pull away from the rest of the pack this weekend as the Belgian took pole ahead of tomorrow’s races. Iven, who won last year at Mallory Park beating home legend Thorpe, was almost a second quicker than Benelux round winner Nilsson.

VETERANS Qualifying top ten: 1. Peter Iven (BEL, Honda), 1:52.173; 2. Mats Nilsson (SWE, Yamaha), +0:00.952; 3. Christophe LherIteau (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:01.853; 4. Greg Hanson (GBR, Honda), +0:02.231; 5. Rob Herring (GBR, Kawasaki), +0:02.365; 6. Pascal Bal (BEL, KTM), +0:02.586; 7. Thierry Fors (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:03.794; 8. Jan Blancquaert (BEL, Suzuki), +0:06.466; 9. Erwin Hendrickx (NED, Honda), +0:07.167; 10. Brian Wheeler (GBR, Yamaha), +0:07.573;