The 7th round of the FIM World Motocross Championship took place in the historic circuit of Saint Jean d’Angely in the west of France. The famously cheerful French fans were once again hungry for some world-class racing, so the guys delivered what turned out to be one of the most intense races of the season.

Pauls came to the track on Friday evening amped and ready to get behind the bars the following days. Despite the excitement that was carried along from the previous weekends, the qualifying race on Saturday started off being anything but successful as Pauls struggled to find his rhythm and after a crash ended up in the 26th position at the end of the moto. Disappointed and frustrated after the race, the young athlete admitted to hoping for a better start the following day.

Sunday brought nothing but sweat and frustration when a DNF fell upon the Latvian and his Huqvarna squad. Following a decent start, Jonass was able to place himself amongst the Top 15 riders for most of the Race 1; however, three laps before the checkered flag, Pauls sensed something wighting down the wheels of his machine and pulled over into the pitlane for a check-up. Despite nothing being found wrong, it seemed almost impossible to catch up with the rest of the racers, so Pauls spent the last three laps of the race looking on from the mechanics zone.

Second race seemed to be a recap of the earlier one with Pauls fighting in the middle of the racing crew. Déjà-vuing his way through the pack, the athlete found himself crossing the finish line in the 20th position. After the emotions had settled, Pauls revealed that, despite feeling well the whole weekend, he just couldn’t make peace with the quite unsuccessful starts at the beginning of both motos and the track itself. 

“It is a shame that we have to leave this awesome circuit with just 1 point to add to the overall standings. The crash I had during Saturday’s free practice definitely impacted my performance; however, it was just a combination of unlucky circumstances that lead to me DNFing in the first race and almost falling out of the Top 20 during the second one. We have some things to dwell upon, most of which will be fixed when the next GP comes around. I feel frustrated for letting my fans down, but my team and I are motivated to turn things around in the upcoming stages of the FIM World Motocross Championship,” Jonass revealed.

The 8th stop in the FIM World Motocross Championship calendar will be in Orylonok, Russia, in less than two weeks time.

Written by Nikola Serge

Image by Juan Pablo Acevedo