Romain Febvre: Top Three Man

Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team rider Romain Febvre might have missed out on a podium by the slimmest of margins last weekend at the MXGP of Great Britain, but after the opening two rounds of the 2021 FIM Motocross World Championship, he sits nicely in third place in the championship points and is just a handful off second placed man Jeffrey Herlings.

The 2015 World MXGP Champion has gone 2-6-7-2 for the first four races of the season, and at times was capable of running with the top guys, Tim Gajser, Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings.

Last weekend after a less than impressive opening race, full of drama and stress, he came back strong and was just a few hundred metres of winning his first race of the season, until Gajser came along and spoilt the party, passing him in the final lap of the race.

“A lot of guys were fast today,” Febvre said. “With a bad start in the first race it was not so easy to come back through the pack; my jump out of the gate was good but I was maybe too far inside and after the first corner I was outside the top ten. I came back strongly to seventh, but then the speed was similar with my rivals, and it wasn’t possible to make the difference. I changed my gate pick for the second race and my start was much better as I got the holeshot and for sure that made life much easier! There was one section on the track where I didn’t find the best line; that is where Tim passed me as I didn’t know which one, he would choose. We exchanged the lead several times during the last two laps and in the end, he won; it’s always frustrating to lead all the race apart from the last two laps but that’s it; we’ll continue to work before Maggiora".

A week earlier he was third overall behind Gajser and Herlings and as has been the case so far this year his starts were good, although a couple of little mishaps cost him any chance of finishing second between the two multiple World champions.

“I had a good start in both races but the second could have been better. I managed to get into third really soon, I saw that I was faster than the other riders but I kind of took my time to look for some lines and Pauls Jonass was in front, he was riding securing the inside line everywhere and at one point I was really close to him, at the last moment he cut his line and went for the inside line and I was there so he took my front wheel and I ended up in the fence. Managed to get the bike and when I stood up, I crashed again, so I lost about 20 seconds. I managed to come back to sixth so it’s pretty good, I didn’t think I was on the podium on the last lap, it’s on your bad days that you can fight for the championship, so I’m really happy to finish sixth in the second race and third overall”.

So now moving onto Maggiora for the Monster Energy MXGP of Italy, a circuit Febvre showed glimpses of his 2015 championship winning form when he won a race at the 2016 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations. So, it is a circuit he likes and no doubt he will be looking for another podium finish, or maybe even a victory.