Winner in Andalusia and Sardinia, Lucas Coenen is chasing a win in hard-pack conditions. In France, his duel with Jeffrey Herlings went in favour of the factory Honda HRC rider, forcing the championship leader to settle for second overall at Lacapelle-Marival. However, the result allows him to keep hold of the red plate before heading to Germany, where he had — also — gone toe-to-toe with Herlings last year.
Following the strong intervention from Romain Febvre during the press conference, Lucas Coenen also wanted to speak out after the French GP, sharing his thoughts for the Frenchman Thibault Benistant, who was airlifted to hospital after his crash in the opening moto.
“I’d like to start by saying that I hope Thibault is okay, because I haven’t heard very good news. It’s never good to see a rider down, and yet we continued the race. But we were just talking about it: in comparison, they stopped the second moto even though the riders who crashed were okay. Sometimes you don’t really understand it, but I’m not going to make a big deal out of it.”
Running sixth after the opening lap of Saturday’s qualifying race, Lucas Coenen fought his way back to third and finished less than one hundredth of a second behind Kay de Wolf, who managed to hold him off in the final metres. An easy winner of the opening moto on Sunday, the championship leader was beaten by Jeffrey Herlings in race two. At the end of the weekend, he therefore lost two points to the Dutchman — the same two points dropped in the qualifying race.
“For me, the weekend went well. Saturday a little less so. It was hard to pass on this track: I managed to come back to third, almost second even. On Sunday, Jeffrey was very strong. I was too, but I couldn’t really find an opening. 1-2 is still a good weekend. I didn’t want to eat roost for the whole moto, but that’s what ended up happening in the second race. I tried to find a way through everywhere, and it was simply impossible to find a solution. Jeffrey needed to make a mistake for me to get by. In some sections, I tried to move a little bit out of the main line, like at the bottom of the downhill. Mainly to try and avoid some of the roost… But overall, I’m satisfied to finish second overall at the Grand Prix.”
Over the space of a week, announcements have continued to pile up for the Coenen brothers. Lucas and Sacha Coenen have been announced for three rounds of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship this summer, as well as the Paris Supercross at the end of the season. If everything goes according to plan, Lucas and Sacha will have just one weekend off between now and the finale in Australia on September 20. A packed schedule, especially considering Lucas is currently leading the MXGP World Championship. He was asked what mindset he has going into this new challenge.
“We’re going there for fun and to gain experience; our dream is to go there in the future,” explained Lucas in closing. “We’re going there to learn and to see how things work. I’m not going to USA to try and win. I’m going there to learn and I’m not going to take any risks whatsoever, because we want to fight for the title; that’s the main goal this year. But it’s going to be a fun experience.”
“It’s a risk, that’s how people see it. But you can also look at the fact that Jeffrey raced a lot during the break, and I think right now the battle for the title is really interesting and intense. It’ll be a great experience and a dream come true. It’s going to be tough. I can’t wait.”
So there’s no time to breathe for the Coenen brothers. Germany this weekend, then Latvia immediately afterwards, before a first trip to Thunder Valley Motocross Park for a guest appearance in the AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Then it’s back to Europe for the Italian GP, followed by the Portuguese and South African Grands Prix, before heading back to the United States for a second Pro Motocross appearance… and so on.
The schedule ahead: 17 races in 18 weeks. A relentless pace they’ll need to handle!
