Jeremy Seewer collected his first podium of the season and the first with the Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP with third overall at the MXGP of Italy at Maggiora.
The Swiss ace took a clear holeshot in race one and maintained a commanding lead for nearly two laps before a surprise attack by the championship leader Jorge Prado forced him off-line into the bales. The resultant crash pushed him back to fifth but he regrouped quickly to exert pressure on the rider in fourth, only to be denied for the remainder of the race as alternative lines converged in the turns to frustrate every move.
Another superb start in race two saw the 29-year-old hold an unchallenged third place to the chequered flag to secure his first podium of the season and advance to fifth in the championship standings at the halfway stage of the series.
“It’s nice to be back on the box,” Seewer said. “I should be up there more often but it just hadn’t happened this year until today; I was a little lucky that Jorge crashed out but I’ll take it. But I think I deserved the podium; this is my kind of track where I am strong and I am physically ready. I don’t know exactly what happened in that second turn until I see the images. I was third turning in and I got hit from behind; I was lucky to stay up. I didn’t push as the track was still pretty sketchy after the rain and I had a solid gap to those behind. Now the goal will be to close the gap to the front guys in the next races.”
Antti Pyrhönen (KRT team manager), added, “MXGP is so competitive and it’s not easy to get where we want to be, but this podium is great for everyone in the team and hopefully a release for Jeremy to find more success. The team was a little down after Roman’s injury of course but we kept our heads down working to come back.”
Jeremy Seewer will be back in action when the MXGP troupe fly to Lombok for back-to-back Indonesian dates on June 29-30 and July 6-7
