Pauls earned the 2nd place in Saturday’s qualification but that didn’t stop him from gaining two victories during the final motos on Sunday which allows him to remain at the top of the championship overall point standings. Not many people knew about the fact that Pauls was struggling with an illness shortly before the race weekend.

“I definitely did not feel my best since after Argentina I fell ill, and the doctors didn’t allow me to practice for a whole week” admits Pauls, also mentioning the cold weather the riders had to battle with throughout the weekend. “The air temperature fell to -2, I think, and there was also snow and wind so it was very hard to get myself warmed up for the races. The first 15 minutes of every moto I felt as if I were a snowman” he says laughingly.

Despite the weather conditions, Pauls rates the GP with a plus sign. “I had a good time on Saturday. Even though I didn’t get the holeshot during the quali race, I was just trying to ride as calmly as possible and not to make any mistakes since the track was really muddy and full of ruts that would leave no room for errors. On Sunday the track was very well prepared. During the first moto I managed to run in front of the pack and keep it under control the whole moto. I also got the 2nd holeshot but that race was a lot tougher since Prado was following me like a shadow; when crossing the finish line, he was only 0,3 seconds behind me.”

When asked about whether he felt the pressure from his teammate, Pauls admitted “Of course I knew he was there; however, I just tried to stay on my lines and not make mistakes since the track was quite difficult”. Pauls also mentioned that he was beyond excited to see so many Latvian flags around the track that gave him an extra boost of confidence.

At the beginning of this week Pauls will continue training and prepping for the upcoming GP taking place in “Redsand”, Spain.