On May 18 and 19, the 6th stage of the FIM World Motocross Championship was held in the sunlit and renown track of Agueda in Portugal. 

At the beginning of the weekend, Pauls admitted to feeling good and once again ready to ride amongst the world’s best motocross riders. “Last weekend, the spot on the podium definitely gave extra confidence in myself. Although it was a surprise to both me and the team, and the fans, I think the hard work I have invested is beginning to pay off. I know that we are on the right path, so we just have to continue working hard,” said Jonass. It should be noted that the Portuguese track is one of Pauls’ favorite stops in the 2019 season calendar, so the athlete was in a good mood before the racing even began.

The Saturday qualifying race stated off quite unsuccessfully, with Pauls touching handlebars with teammate Arminas Jasikonis’ bike and almost crashing in the middle of the pack. Although there was no fall, the Latvian had to start the race from 17th position, which made the fight for the best possible start gate pick for the next day difficult. At the end of the moto, Jonass was able to break into the top ten and finished in 9th place.

As it turned out later, the dismantled stability was decisive throughout the next race day, when Pauls left the first turn of the starting lane being 9th, where the athlete also spent most of his time, afterwards passing two of his rivals and finishing 7th at the end of the first race. In a similar scenario, the 2nd final race took place, where Jonass spent 30 minutes being in the 7th position, which allowed the athlete to earn 6th position in the overall GP ranking. In the World Championship’s overall classification, Pauls has risen to 8th place with 137 points, with just 16 points short of his closest competitor.

“I’m pleased with what I have done this weekend. Although I was not able to get close to the race leaders or fight for the first three spots, we are happy to have had two stable races. At the moment, my weak point seems to be the starts, which often results in me being at the back of the pack and having to start the moto from there. This, of course, makes it more difficult to focus, and therefore I start to make mistakes. We will definitely continue to place great emphasis on practicing and polishing the starts,” admits the athlete.

The next FIM World Motocross Championship stage will be held ​​on May 25 and 26 in France.

Written by Nikola Serge

Image by Juan Pablo Acevedo