The fourth round of the FIM Motocross World Championship belonged to Monster Energy Yamaha and David Philippaerts as the Italian emerged victorious from two hugely entertaining motos at a sweltering and packed Indaiatuba. The Grand Prix of Brazil saw DP19 take his works YZ450FM to second and first positions to spray overall winners champagne for the first time since the 2010 French Grand Prix.
26,000 spectators filled the grandstands around the excellent racing facility an hour north of Sao Paolo and steamy weather graced the entire weekend as the Grand Prix community faced their second fly-away event in succession. The course was unrelenting in a layout of jumps and corners and was short and compact.
On Saturday the factory Yamahas formation-flew as Frossard led the Qualification Heat from Philippaerts before the Italian took control at the mid-way point of the sprint and glided to his first pole position since the season-closing Italian Grand Prix last year.
Filling the first slot on the line for the tricky uphill start from a soft gate, Philippaerts and Frossard both launched well and embarked on a spat with Antonio Cairoli for the lead that lasted practically all of the 35 minutes and 2 laps. Clement Desalle also jointed the dispute prior to his error three laps from the flag. Frossard eventually dropped back in third and Philippaerts followed Cairoli to the line.
Another good battle later in the afternoon involved the same cast but Steve Ramon also joined the fray. Desalle again made a mistake and fell and Philippaerts was able to control the moto from the front. Cairoli applied pressure on the penultimate lap but Philippaerts responded by setting the fastest time of the race on the very last lap. The former world champion now has two podium results in 2011. Frossard felt the effects of the thumb strain he sustained in the USA and was fifth at the finish, tying on points with Desalle for third place but losing the podium due to the second race classification.
Anthony Boissiere was searching for points inside the top ten of the leader-board and finished twelfth in the first moto but a hefty crash in the second left the Frenchman short of breath and holding his right shoulder. Full credit must go to 2010 MX3-GP World Champion Carlos Campano who was riding a stock YZ450F after problems with U.S. customs. The Spaniard aced the holeshot against a gate-ful of works bikes in the first moto. Campano was sadly unable to last the distance or even start the second due to pain his hand after a fall at Glen Helen last week.
In the world championship standings Philippaerts and Frossard are fourth and fifth respectively with Boissiere in twelfth. The Grand Prix of France (home events for Frossard and Boissiere and in fact the site of the latters first moto victory in 2005) will occur in two weeks at St Jean dAngely and will start a run of three consecutive events with visits to Spain and Portugal following immediately after.
