The Australian girl raced hard all weekend at Saint Jean D'Angely to retain second place in the world series, just four points away from the pacesetter although she was coming off a bout of sickness during the week. The start to the opening moto on Saturday afternoon did not go to plan and she was forced to battle her way through the pack to fourth place, narrowly failing to catch the third placed finisher. A better start on Sunday morning saw Meghan dispute victory with fellow Kawasaki rider Livia Lancelot throughout the second moto and enabled her to negate most of the losses she had made to the points leader the previous day. With two rounds and four motos remaining, she is still very much in the race for the title, just four points away from the lead. Her efforts have also helped Kawasaki to establish a twenty-point lead in the manufacturers' world championship.
Valentin Teillet returned from his racing activities in the USA to contest his home country round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship and finished a creditable thirteenth overall, with 13-11 moto finishes, in this, his second entry to the premier world motocross series. Thirteenth in qualification, he got pushed out at the start of the opening race and had to charge from an initial eighteenth place to finish thirteenth, but he was right in the thick of the action throughout race two to improve by two places to eleventh.
Jorge Zaragoza, the Spanish teenager who is currently second in the European MX250 championship, took advantage of a free weekend in his schedule for that series to contest an MX2 GP for the first time. After posting competitive lap times during the practice sessions and racing to thirteenth in qualification, he raced into the top ten from an initial thirteenth into the top ten of the opening moto and held down eighth place at the start of race two before crashes, caused by over-enthusiasm, forced his retirement each time. But the experience will make him stronger for the future of his highly promising career.
Meghan Rutledge: “The weekend was good. I have been very sick coming to this race so to be on the podium is great! My start was not so good in race one but better for the second moto; I think that a couple of my lap times were faster than Livia but I had some troubles with the lappers when I was coming closer; but I don't want to take anything away from her performance; she raced like a champion this weekend. It was great to see such a huge crowd, for sure they were more crazy when Livia was leading as they support their champions.”
Valentin Teillet: “For my second MXGP I had a better rhythm than in Spain; this time I could ride like I’m used to. I came back from the USA on Tuesday, so I had no time to test the 450 but it was not a problem as I raced the French series with this bike. My problem this weekend were the starts; I had a bad gate and then it was difficult to pass on this track. The second start was better and I was in the top ten, but between both races I had some stomach troubles and that didn’t help me.”
Jorge Zaragoza: “It was a new experience for me to race a Grand Prix, and I was pleased with the results on Saturday. In both GP motos I had a pretty good start and was in the top ten, but each time I did a mistake and crashed. The second one was pretty hard, I was lucky that nobody hit me.”