Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha MXGP made the very short trip across to the Grand Prix of Belgium, held at Lommel, for the fourteenth round of the 2019 FIM Motocross World Championship this past weekend. The team were ecstatic to welcome countless partners and fans to the awning across the two days of racing.
The power in that Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha MXGP YZ450F was on show for the 33,000 fans in attendance, as Arnaud Tonus took a huge holeshot in the qualifying race on Saturday. Fourth was the position that was secured at the finish, which set him up well for the first points-paying race on Sunday. Tonus battled around the top five for the duration in that one and ultimately secured fifth, a solid result on such a gnarly surface. Six seconds separated him from the rider in third too, so there was the potential to achieve even more.
The second moto was littered with issues for Tonus, however, as multiple falls and mistakes left him down in fourteenth at the chequered flag. It was still a respectable result, considering the circumstances, and left him in eleventh overall on the day. The result means that he maintained fourth in the points and continues to trail his teammate, Gautier Paulin, in third by six points.
Paulin also endured a testing weekend in the sand of Lommel but clinched two top-ten finishes in the races. The fact that he was ill going into the weekend did not help matters at all, but he soldiered on in an attempt to gather as many points as possible. The twenty-three points that he claimed put him tenth overall on the day and also ensured that he kept his grip on third in the title race.
The Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha MXGP squad will now take advantage of a weekend off, following such an energy-sapping race, before tackling the fifteenth race on the 2019 FIM Motocross World Championship calendar in Italy.
Arnaud Tonus: “It was a pretty good weekend. The first race was really good, but in the second race I crashed. I was pretty far back, but I came back inside the top-ten and then crashed again and got stuck under the bike, so I finished fourteenth.”
Gautier Paulin: “It has been tough for me. I didn’t feel good all weekend. My bike was working really well, both engine and suspension, but it was just myself that let it all down. Physically, it was a challenging weekend. I was feeling unwell on Friday, so the aim now will be to get healthy and come back stronger at the next GP.”
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