Ninth round of the MX2 World Championship in Sweden

Just a week after his first GP podium in Germany, Steven Frossard confirmed his great potential by scoring a fifth place during the Swedish round of the World Championship. Tenth of the second heat, Gregory Aranda is back to his rank after three tough races.

During his qualifying race Steven confirmed his ability on the tight and slippery layout, scoring a third place behind Rattray and Simpson. That was not as easy in the other race for Gregory, who just secured his qualification in the last lap with a twelfth position. Both qualifying sessions took place on a sunny track, but things were different on Sunday as nightly showers changed the race conditions.

Steven got a great start in the opening race, coming third behind the KTM of Simpson and Rattray. He kept the pace with the leaders during half of the race, and then was passed by reigning World Champion Cairoli who then passed Simpson to finish second. In the last ten minutes Steven came closer to Simpson and was ready to attack him when he broke his pipe and lost power.

Finally fourth, Steven did not have such a good start in the second race but he made his way inside the pack to come ninth after one lap. The track was damaged after the rain and with mud projections it was difficult to pass, but Steven earned two more ranks and then could only follow Tarroux and Goncalves who didn’t do any mistakes. Seventh of the heat, he finished fifth overall and claimed the tenth position in the standings.

Gregory never recovered from a bad start in the opening moto and finally retired with mud in the eyes, but after a better start in the next one he did a strong race to finish tenth with good lap times. All the staff will now have a short break, before moving in ten days to Nelspruit (South Africa) for the tenth round of the championship.

Steven Frossard: ‘I was third for a long time in the first race, but then Cairoli passed me. I was waiting the last two or three laps to pass Simpson, but four laps before the end of the race my pipe broke and I lost power. The bike was noisy and then my goal was just to save my fourth position.

My second start was not as good as the previous one, but I came back from twelfth to seventh; I had the speed to pass Tarroux and Gonçalves, but I didn’t found the place to do it and struggled with the mud that they sent. I’m a little bit disappointed with my second heat, my goal was to battle once more with Cairoli and Rattray but fifth of the event is not so bad. Now I expect to get some other podiums, may be one heat win with a good start as I know that I have the bike to do it’

Gregory Aranda: ‘It was an average weekend, in fact much better than Germany. I had some good lap times in practice, but my qualifying race was not good as I got a bad start and never took a good rhythm. Sunday morning I posted the fastest lap during the warm up, that’s always good mentally! My first race was disappointing, I had a bad start, later crashed and then took off my goggles and got mud in the eyes.

My second race was much better, I had a strong rhythm after a decent start and I battled with Van Horebeek and Guarneri to beat both of them and score a tenth position’

Jean Jacques Luisetti: ‘Greg had a difficult first race, but recovered for the next one and scored a strong tenth position. He is not in the top fifteen in the standings and didn’t get support from the promoter for the trip to South Africa, but we’ve decided that he will go alongside Steven. We have mixed feelings with the fifth place of Steven, for sure that’s another good performance but we love so much the podiums!

There was more sand than usual on this track and it’s not so good for us, but Steven was fast and consistent with a great opening race among the factory riders. For sure I expect that Kawasaki will give us technical and financial support to keep him in the team, he is a podium contender and several teams already approached him for next season.

Despite his shoulder injury Loic Larrieu was in the Netherlands for the European series, he posted the second time in his qualifying group but then was less successful in the races. He was second in the first race when his wheel broke, and then save some points with a twelfth place despite a painful shoulder’

Thierry Chizat Suzzoni: ‘It’s another good week-end for Steven, even if we always look for a podium now after Germany! He proved once more during the first race that he has the speed to battle with the top riders of the class, and missed another top result in the second race with an average start. Gregory recovered pretty well after his disappointing German GP, his second race is exactly what we expect from him’ 

- Pascal Haudiquert -