| Livia won the GP of Bulgaria |
12th May 2008 |
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WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN BULGARIA
Double podium in Bulgaria for the GPKR team
Team Grand Prix Kawasaki racing celebrate another GP win this weekend in Bulgaria, as Livia Lancelot won the opening round of the Women’s World Championship. In the same time Sébastien Pourcel obtained his second consecutive podium, with a third place in Sevlievo.
Home of the Bulgarian GP since several years now, Sevlievo offered two different events this year as the weather changed fastly on Sunday. The first races took place on a dry track under hot temperatures, while a storm changed the conditions between the heats.
On Saturday the track was in perfect conditions and once more Sébastien Pourcel was the fastest rider in all the sessions, scoring his third consecutive pole position. Fastest during the free practice periods, Livia Lancelot didn’t found a clear lap during the clocked session and qualified third in the Womens class. In both heats Sebastien had an average start, to come between sixth and eighth in the first corners. He recovered pretty well during the first race, and passed Mackenzie for third when the British rider hurt him. Seb crashed, started seventh and crashed again during the next lap. Twelfth, he took his time to recover and then pushed again to finish eighth. His second start was a little bit better and it took him a few laps to find his lines as the track was more damaged after the storm; after six laps he started his come back until the second position that he reached four laps before the end of the race. He never stopped pushing and got a nice present when Barragan crashed later and offered him his second heat win of the season. Third of the event, Sébastien is currently seventh in the standings.
Missing a good start in the first women’s race, Livia Lancelot came back fastly in second position and then passed Papenmeir for the lead during the third lap. She controled the race until she came back on the lapers, who sometimes reacted slowly to move when they saw the blue flag. Livia lost four seconds to Papenmeier in a single circulation, and was passed by the German lady who won the first race. The track was slippery for the second heat and Livia showed how fast she is when the grip is average. Passing her main rivals on the jumps, she took early the leadership to win easily the race and the Grand Prix. She is the first leader of the first ever Women’s World Championship, one week prior the second round scheduled in Italy.
Sébastien Pourcel: ‘ The qualifications were again great for me, as I was the fastest during all the sessions on Saturday. My first start was average, I was coming back strongly but when I passed Mackenzie he had a stupid reaction; he didn’t tried to turn, but just came on me to cut my line. We crashed, I was overexited and during the following lap I crashed again! Then I recovered, took it quietly and came back eighth. My second start was a little bit better but during the first part of the race I didn’t felt comfortable, the track was wet and I was sliding, my lines were not so good. It took me some laps to recover, and then I came back third behind Barragan and Philippaerts. They were far but Philippaerts did a mistake and I came back, then passed him for the second place and pushed hard to reduce the gap with Barragan. He did a mistake and I passed him, then I was surprised by the checkered flag as I didn’t realised that the race was finished. It’s good to be again on the podium, even if it could have been better without this collision during the first race’
Livia Lancelot: ‘ It was a great weekend, with two different races. The track was hard and it was hot for the first race, then it was rainy and of course slippery. My start was not so good at the first race, I came back second behind Papenmeir and looked her lines. I stay two laps and passed her as I was faster and then secured a small gap. I lost some concentration and some time when I came on the lapers, and didn’t realised that Papenmeir was coming closer. I lost four seconds and she passed me three laps before the end, I couldn’t passed her back as there was one main line on the track. When I saw the rain coming before the second heat I was comfident, my start was good and in the second dowhill I passed everyone. Not so many girls were jumping the double jumps, and I made a big gap to secure the heat win. It’s great to be first leader of the World Championship, now I will have a few days to recover before Mantova where the goal will be to keep the red plate ’
Patrick Geladé: ‘ It’s another good weekend for us, with strong races from Livia and Sébastien. Since several weeks now Sébastien brings us strong results, in the GP’s as well as the French Championship and with his third pole position in a row he confirmed his potential. We have to continue to work on the start, it’s our next goal and despite his collision during the first race Sébastien claimed another podium. Livia surprised me this weekend, she worked hard during two months to be ready for this race and she got very good results. Concerning Kevin he visited his doctor last thursday and may be he will have the permission to start riding his VTT next week, and it seems that he could be back for the French GP’
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