Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre set the benchmark for Team France to win the FIM Motocross of Nations on home soil at Ernée with a stunning victory in the first race of the day.t was Febvre’s fourth victory in four appearances for his country.
France’s team captain led from the front, displaying his commitment and national pride from the drop of the gate in the first moto. Sweeping into second within half-a-lap he immediately chased down year-long GP rival Jorge Prado, pressurizing the Spaniard for six laps as the duo moved relentlessly clear of their chasers before executing a well-devised pass to take the lead and immediately opened up a gap before the leaders encountered lapped traffic.
With an eye to the national team scores he wisely did not risk pushing harder than necessary on a treacherously slippery race-track surface and fell victim to a surprise pass by his rival with four laps remaining. Urged on frenetically by the massive home crowd the Frenchman dug deep to immediately respond and, with an exhilerating downhill pass, he moved back to the front and sprinted clear of his demoralised rival to claim the first home victory of the day for the ecstatic crowd
Having surrendered France’s first gate-pick to his teammate for the final moto the Kawasaki ace was outside the top-ten on the opening lap and faced several extremely obstructive rivals on his way to seventh at half-distance. The first-six had already escaped and, putting national pride before personal glory in this team event, he sensibly did not put the honour at risk, coasting home seventh to ensure an overwhelming victory for La Grande Nation by a massive twenty points.
“It’s unbelievable to win again; my fourth Nations and my fourth victory. I wasn’t completely comfortable with the track yesterday in Qualifying but I knew that I had the ability to turn it round today. I took a good start – second to Prado – in the first moto and then it was like a GP race with me chasing him down. He passed me back near the end and the fight was on; I knew I had to do something and I passed him again with two laps to go. Tom (Vialle) did more than we could expect to finish second in total to Maxime (Renaux) in the second race, so we just had to ride it home in the final moto. Each of us won in our class and we had a big gap to second. I’m so happy for the fans who were behind us so strongly all day; we rode as a team … and we won as a team!”
