Newsletter

The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

MX2, Leon, MEXICO, 2 Avril 2017

A sixth for Seva Brylyakov in Mexico

Seva Brylyakov of Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki raced to a sixth placed moto finish in the fourth round of the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship at Leon on the high central plateau of Mexico.

The Russian again showed tremendous speed in training to post top three times in each session, but fortune deserted him in each of the races. He quickly advanced to a challenging eighth in the opening GP moto before a rival's unorthodox riding forced Seva to crash; remounting last he recovered to fourteenth at the finish. Initially twelfth in race two he put in a powerful charge to sixth place mid-moto, but a damaged clutch cable hindered any further progress. Seva has now progressed to ninth in the series standings as the series heads back to Europe.
 
Adam Sterry of the Monster Energy Kawasaki MX2 Racing Team maintained his steady progress as he finished top ten in each race. The young British rider could have finished even higher than his eventual tenth and ninth if he had not encountered setbacks each time; an early crash in race one saw him chase back through the pack from eighteenth to finish tenth, while he could not retain his evident top six speed to the finish in race two as he developed severe blisters on the palm of his left hand which had suffered serious burns in a collision with another rider two weeks previously. He was ninth overall in the GP and has advanced to thirteenth in the series standings.
 
Rookie teammate Stephen Rubini continues his steep learning curve and, despite pain in the shoulder from a crash during qualification, charged into the points in both races for the first time in his GP career on race day with two resilient rides through the ranks. Eighteenth and fifteenth earns the French teenager seventeenth in the GP.
 
DRT Kawasaki's Darian Sanayei, so close to the podium two weeks earlier in Argentina, never settled on the Mexican track and was unable to repeat his recent successes. He finished the first moto seventeenth despite a fall and was sixteenth in race two. The American is now twelfth in the series standings.
 
Petar Petrov of the Kawasaki MX2 Racing Team has now been back in training for ten days and will return to racing at the next round of the world series in Italy in two weeks' time.
 
Seva Brylyakov: “It’s good to finish the weekend with a sixth place, as it has been another tough GP for me. This weekend again I show great speed, and it made me confident for the races but also a little bit frustrated after the races because I’m not at the place where I should be finishing in the races. In the first moto my start was quite good and I was battling for seventh place; I saw the other riders were not far away and I was riding calm, just waiting for the moment to pass but the rider behind me was doing strange things and finally I crashed. It was difficult to restart the bike, and finally I came back from last to fourteenth but it cost me a lot of energy as I had to push until the end of the race. My start in the second moto was more difficult; I was sixth and was catching the guy in fifth position until my clutch cable was damaged. I finished sixth. Now I have to take care of my body after the crash on Saturday, and we’ll continue to work with the team before the next round in Italy.”
 
Adam Sterry: “This weekend was an improvement for me, the results are still not what I would like but it’s coming better as I finished both motos in the top ten. We changed a few things during the week, but a crash in the first moto made my weekend hard as I had to rejoin the race in eighteenth position. The second race was better as I was sixth after the start, but I had such bad blisters on the hand I burnt two weeks ago that it was dangerous; it was difficult to handle the bike and I finished ninth. But we are going in the right direction; I just hope that my blisters will heal soon as before coming here I could only train twice. It’s not ideal, in fact it’s annoying but there’s nothing I can really do about it. I’m looking forward to getting back to the European tracks, and we will now work on our starts.”
 
Stephen Rubini: “This GP was much better for me than the previous ones; I came here with another mind-set and I had a better feeling in the practice sessions. In the qualifying race I had a big crash; I had some pain in my shoulder but I recovered to seventeenth from last position. Today was better. I was able to finish eighteenth in the first moto even though I crashed at the second corner. My second start was again not so good, but I came back to fifteenth and it’s the first time that I have scored in both races. Now we move to Europe; I know most of the tracks and for sure there will be more riders involved but the goal will be to continue to learn and score points."
 
Darian Sanayei: “I struggled on this track in Leon; I just couldn’t find the pace the top guys were running here. I couldn’t push my limits. In the qualifying race I crashed and hurt my shoulder a little bit, then in the first moto I was pretty far back; I got through to fourteenth but I fell and finished seventeenth. In the second race I started in the back again and could only come back to sixteenth to score nine points this weekend. I will keep working and hopefully I will be able to get some good starts in the next rounds.”