XMotionMag Issue 3 June/July 2017 ISSUE3_JUNE-JULY17 | Page 77

ISSUE 3 - MXGPFRANCE In race 2 Paturel, who has struggled with starts all year long, scored his first career Fox Holeshot. The firsts kept on coming as he won race 2, the only time in his career thus far. On the French mother’s day holiday Paturel finished second overall and dedicated his race win to his mother, whom passed away last year. In the press conference Paturel said: “I’m really happy with my race, I had difficulty in the past at the last race in Germany, but I came back strong. I’m happy to battle with these two guys (Jonass and Seewer), I think we have a good level and it is really nice to ride like this. Today I got the first FOX Holeshot of my career and it helped very much.” Suzuki World MX2’s Jeremy Seewer followed up his 2nd place with 3rd in race 2. Seewer applied pressure to his title competitor Jonass in both races but in neither was able to make a pass. Seewer has been focusing on eliminating mistakes and his 3rd overall scored the same points as Paturel’s 2nd. Seewer later in the race press conference said: “Third position is a little bit less than we expected but it was still a good race especially in the second one where we all 3 pushed pretty hard and gapped the other guys. First race I tried to pull on Pauls and made a small mistake, I was really scared to the make the same mistakes of yesterday”. For the second time in two races Suzuki World MX2’s Hunter Lawrence placed one spot behind his teammate, Seewer, while last weekend he was third, this time it was 4th overall. Lawrence placed 5-4 and is showing some serious speed that will undoubtedly continue in the upcoming rounds. The final spot in the top five went to the hard charging LRT KTM rider Julien Lieber. The Belgian had a decent start in Race 1 and moved from 5th on lap one to finish 4th. Though the real story was that of the 2nd race when he was 19th after lap one but made a miraculous charge up to 6th by the finish, the #33’s 4-6 charge was worth 33 points proved just enough to keep him 5th overall. XMOTIONMAG • 77