The French youngster moved up the leaderboard to take a strong second place on the ninth of twenty laps in the first moto, and he again advanced stylishly from just outside the top ten to snatch fourth within six laps of the start of race two. With temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius, the effort took its toll however and Dylan sensibly accepted that position rather than risking a costly error as the conditions sapped the energy of the competitors. Dylan is now 22 points behind the series leader, but has an eight point advantage over third and is sixteen ahead of fourth.
KRT teammate Thomas Covington secured his best-ever overall GP result as he finished fourth overall after crossing the line fifth in each race. The American teenager battled for leaderboard honours throughout both motos and is now set to add consistency to the undoubted speed which has been evident since his arrival on the GP scene last year and has advanced to seventh in the series standings.
Jordi Tixier, third member of the KRT team, had an unfortunate weekend. After an early incident he had to fight his way through the pack and had advanced to eleventh until he crashed within sight of the chequered flag and surrendered two positions. After receiving medical attention, Jordi did not start the second race and has dropped to twelfth in the standings.
Mel Pocock of the Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki team also experienced his best GP result to date as he finished sixth overall on the day from eighth and seventh placed finishes in the two motos. The Englishman is now eleventh in the series.
Dylan Ferrandis: “ I should be happy with two podiums and second in the standings, but I’m also frustrated as I dropped more points to Jeffrey. We’ve been coming here to Thailand for three years now but we never had such weather; it was really tough today. My first start was really good; I made a few mistakes but took a strong second placed finish. I kept some energy for the second moto but my start was not as good and I had to recover from twelfth to fourth. I felt tired mid race and didn’t want to make a silly mistake so I was satisfied to secure the fourth position which gave me third overall. Now I have three weeks to prepare for the next GP; we’ll do everything to go for the win in Argentina.”
Thomas Covington: “It’s been a really good weekend for me; the bike was working really good, I got two good starts and I rode two solid motos with two fifth placed finishes which gave me fourth overall. That’s where I wanted to be when I came into the season, being in the top five; we’ve got to keep on doing this every weekend, and being consistent. The track was OK; it was definitively not my favourite but there was some nice jumps even if it was pretty small and tight; but I just got my best ever overall GP result so I can’t complain.”
Jordi Tixier: “It was definitively not a good weekend, as I couldn’t finish the first race. I had recovered from twentieth to eleventh, but on the last lap in the waves section I couldn’t hold the bike and crashed. My brain was not working as usual; I gave 100% during the race and with the heat I suddenly had no energy, no concentration and crashed. They took me in the medical service for treatment, but I couldn’t start the second race.”
Mel Pocock: “It was a tough weekend, but I had two good results today which gave me sixth overall and I’m now just outside the top ten in the championship. I’m happy with the results, one of my best in GPs; it makes the team happy, me happy, everyone goes back to England happy and that will just gave us some more confidence for the next races. It took a lot of time for the track to settle down as it’s a new track, but it was difficult, like a Supercross one but bigger, and at the end I was having fun on it. “