After Friday night‰Ûªs heavy rain, the FIM Motocross World Championship collective had to wait until 3:00 pm to begin this thirteenth Grand Prix of the season.
The brand new track of Moneyglass Demesne, which is 1690 metre long and was built on an area of over 350 acres, hosted four sessions today: the MX2 Free Practice and Qualifying Practice, and the MX1 Free Practice and Qualifying Practice.
Belgian Ken De Dycker was the fastest MX1 rider and took pole number two of the season; in the MX2 class, Championship leader Antonio Cairoli took the pole. Both riders put in a total of two laps under very demanding conditions.
MX1
de Dycker of CAS Honda tried his fastest lap very early in the session, when there was almost no traffic on the track, and clocked a brilliant 2:48.729 laptime.
Suzuki team mates Kevin Strijbos and Steve Ramon battled for the second spot, with Strijbos eventually settling into second place ahead of Ramon. The latter can move up to the lead of the Championship tomorrow, as current leader Joshua Coppins will come back only in England - next weekend.
Sebastien Pourcel of GPKR, who put in five laps today, worked his way up to fourth ahead of fellow Kawasaki rider Tanel Leok. The Estonian snatched fifth place from a solid Julien Bill, who had clinched his first top three moto finish in the latest GP at Namur.
Kenneth Gundersen made his GP debut on the YZ450F with a YRRD (Yamaha Rinaldi R&D) kit, and brought the bike home with the seventh fastest laptime, ahead of Billy Mackenzie and Manuel Priem, with the latter riding the brand new TM MX1-GP 08 with aluminium frame.
MX2
In a rainy qualifying session, Yamaha De Carli‰Ûªs Antonio Cairoli rode an incredible first lap to clock the pole at the first of his only two attempts. The Italian, who can secure his second World Title tomorrow at the end of the opening moto if he scores one point more than runner up Christophe Pourcel, finished ahead of a surprising Jeremy Tarroux.
The young Frenchman, who is in the AXO KTM Silver Action squad since the GP of Sweden, was seven tenths of a second off the pole whereas Namur GP winner Davide Guarneri clocked the third fastest time.
AXO KTM Silver Action‰Ûªs Rui Goncalves, who was on his maiden podium at Namur, was fourth fastest ahead of GPKR‰Ûªs Christophe Pourcel, who progressively improved on his laptime.
BikeIt Yamaha UK Dixon‰Ûªs Carl Nunn was a positive sixth ahead of countryman Tommy Searle.
European EMX2 Title contenders Khounsith Vongsana and Gautier Paulin experienced different fortunes on a wet Moneyglass Demesne. Vongsana was thirteenth fastest as Gautier was nineteenth, while their colleague Joel Roelants was seventeenth.
Main Photo: Steve Ramon plows through the Irish mud
