Fifth and eighth overall at the MXGP of Argentina for Team HRC

Team HRC’s Gautier Paulin and Evgeny Bobryshev finished today’s Grand Prix of Argentina in fifth and eighth places overall respectively, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Light drizzle fell at the start of the opening race and for the opening few laps, but did little more than dampen the track. Bobryshev emerged strongly from turn one in third, and despite slipping to eighth at one point the resurgent Russian finished fifth – his best result since the Italian GP in June last year, just before the injury in the second race of that GP that ruled him out for the rest of the season.

Paulin emerged from the first few corners in 16th, then set about clawing his way back through the field. He climbed to sixth before a crash demoted him to 9th, but he fought back to sixth once again.

Race two started similarly, with Bobby in third and Paulin 16th, but whilst Gautier crossed the line seventh to claim fifth overall, lying fifth in the World Championship, a crash on lap one and the resultant finger injury ruled Bobby out of another strong finish as he had to claw his way back to tenth. Nevertheless, as he continues to re-find his form it’s his strongest showing since breaking his tibia and fibula mid-way through last season in Italy.

Roger Harvey HRC General Manager - MXGP
“When you look at Bobby, he was running really well today with just a bit of his old sparkle coming back which was nice to see. That’s what our plan is for him; to rebuild his speed after last year’s injury, and he was riding nicely. He was strong at the starts and came out of the first corner in the top three or four each time, and fifth in race one was a good solid result for him. In the second race he got a bit tangled up and split his finger open unfortunately which slowed his progress, as again he was in the top four at that point.
It’s not been the easiest of days for Gautier today. It’s a combination of things throughout the weekend, and if you put a whole structure together it works well, but he’s done the best job he could do today so it’s just a case of building upon that and putting him back on the podium again.”

Gautier Paulin 21 6TH, 7TH 5TH OVERALL
“It’s been a difficult day, and I wasn’t able to get the starts I wanted so then was fighting in the midfield, but we come away from everything with fifth overall in the GP and we’re fifth in the championship and still fighting. Now we look to Italy and continue to work hard on the whole package.”

Evgeny Bobryshev 777 5TH, 10TH 8TH OVERALL
“I feel like it's been another step this weekend with fifth in the first race and running third in the second race. The starts were good and I was feeling pretty good, but then in race two the crash put me back so I had to fight back again. The result is not what I want, but I’m pretty happy with my performance this weekend.”