Everything has happened very quickly for Maxime Grau over the past few weeks. Signed at the last minute by the Maddii Racing Honda team to contest the MX2 World Championship on the CRF 250, the French rider is clearly gaining momentum GP after GP. Seventh in the first MX2 moto in Trentino on Sunday — his best result in the category — Grau had been battling with Sacha Coenen in the opening laps of race two before being forced to retire. Setting aside the final result (13th), he leaves Italy with plenty of positives. Next stop: the French GP at Lacapelle-Marival. Interview with Kevin Frelaud.
Max, let’s start from the beginning. You were solid on Saturday in the qualifying race, finishing just outside the top 10. Then on Sunday you scored your best MX2 result so far (7th) in race one. You’ve surprised quite a few people this weekend, even though unfortunately there was that DNF in race two.
Grau: I’m really happy with my first moto, and with my starts in general. In Switzerland I had good starts, in Sardinia again, and this weekend too — I almost got the holeshot in race two. We’re doing a really good job.
When you start with the front guys, it completely changes your race. You also see what you need to work on. I was missing two or three things. These four weeks off will be very important for me. We’re going to really focus on arriving strong in France, Germany, and the races after that to get good results. It’s going to be great.
What happened in that second moto?
Grau: I got a really good start with Sacha. I know he sets a very high pace from the beginning. I told myself I had to stay with him. I knew that if I wanted to break away from the guys behind, I had to follow him.
Honestly, he was a step above. I made a few small mistakes, two or three times. There was a camel jump uphill and at one point I hit a bump and got kicked sideways. I was half sideways — I don’t even know how I saved it. I was like a cat on the bike!
At this level, the pace is high, but I’m happy. Step by step, we’re improving.
In Sardinia it was similar: good start, tried to hold on. Here in Italy, good start again in race one, I held on, finished seventh — my best result. In race two I started second, tried to give everything, but I was missing a bit in the tank and ended up going down. We’re still learning. We’re on the right path, I’m very happy. The team is doing a great job.
You didn’t tell me you had a factory engine in that Honda [laughs]. I don’t know exactly what you’ve got, but the HRC guys must be scratching their heads. You’ve been in front of Lata twice, and I don’t think you have the same material.
Grau: No, we definitely don’t have the same material. With us, Maddii is in charge. We know they have a strong reputation. They know how to build engines, they know how it works. Even with the two-stroke bikes, they’ve won a lot with Fantic in the European 250 2-stroke championship. We’re far from having a full factory engine. There are still plenty of things to test, plenty of things to develop. The team is doing a very good job. I’m fully committed, and we keep progressing.
Looking at the lap times, you’re still missing about one second to fight for the top five almost every moto. How do we find that one second?
Grau: That’s the next step to take. We’ve seen what I was missing this weekend to fight with the front guys. It’s a shame about the first moto — I think I deserved to hold that position. Even if seventh is still a great result. Given the situation I was in, I feel I could have done better.
It’s always the same feeling: you think you can do more, always more. When you start with the front guys, it pushes you. You want to be better, stronger, but we’ll take our time, analyse everything properly. Now we’ve got four weeks, we’ll go back to work and come back strong for France. I know there will be a lot of fans at Lacapelle, it’s going to be an amazing atmosphere. We’ll give everything, prepare well, and it’s going to be great!
