- Strong Weekend in Arnhem
- Bad Luck in Race 1
- Great Teamwork from the Entire Crew
After the race in Uddevalla, Max spent a few more days in Sweden with his teammate Max Palson to train together. From there, he headed straight to Arnhem in the Netherlands for the next MXGP, where a deep sand track awaited the riders. Max felt comfortable from the beginning during his last MXGP appearance of he year and showed it with 13th place in time practice and 14th in the qualifying race.
“Unfortunately, on my fastest lap in time practice another rider got in my way a bit, which cost me some time. I missed the top ten by just 0.3 seconds. In the qualifying race, I didn’t get off the start very well and got caught up in the first corner shuffle. But then I made my way up to 14th. That was a good Saturday and gave me a solid starting position for Sunday,” Max said, satisfied.
In the first moto, Max was safely running in 15th place and already closing in on the riders ahead. With seven laps to go, a stone got caught between the sprocket and chain, causing the chain to come off and damaging the sprocket. That meant an early end to the race for Max.
“That was just bad luck, because I already had 14th place in sight. But things like that can happen, and no one’s to blame. What was really great to see, though, was how well our small but strong team worked together to get the bike back from the track to the paddock as quickly as possible and fix the damage. That was top teamwork,” Max explained.
In the second moto, Max got off to a good start and settled into 15th place after dropping back from 11th in the early stages. Three laps before the finish, he crashed due to a mistake of his own and lost two positions. Before the checkered flag, however, he managed to recover to 16th place.
“My front wheel got caught in a bump, I went over the handlebars, and the bike even landed on my head. But I almost managed to make up the two places I lost—I was already alongside 15th in the last corner. I was just too sideways and crossed the line in 16th. All in all, though, it was a good weekend: I was really happy with my riding and our crew worked very well together. Now I’m looking forward to the ADAC MX Masters’ French premiere in Bitche next weekend,” Max summed up the weekend.
Results:
Quali: 14 (13 in Timed Practice)
Moto 1: 32
Moto 2: 16
Overall: 19
Championship: 26
