Some GPs have had 40 gates this year in MXGP but the backmarkers have been proving a problem – think Jeffrey Herlings in moto one in Lommel!
Jorge Prado and Herlings have their view in the press conference at Arnhem, a GP that yet again, had backmarkers not always moving out of the way of the leaders.
Prado said: “We have lappers and I see them two or three times. This is the world championship, I race the Spanish championship and okay i lap everyone two time – but here I do the same. I think it isn’t normal to lap the same guy two or three times, I think it is quite embarrassing for us because it is making it dangerous. Hopefully someone takes action on that because it’s making the race between us…with the lappers it’s a big mess everywhere. We are racing the world championship, guy need to go out if we lap them one time, it needs to be something like this. It’s not normal what is going on right now in the championship, it’s good we have full gates but not riders 30-40 seconds a lap slower, sorry.”
Herlings said: “Our average GP tracks are 1.30 -2 minutes, something in that range, so this track wasn’t too small. This track wasn’t so difficult to pass on but if we go to a track like next weekend (Swiss GP) it is a one-lined track, it’s almost impossible to pass if a rider is five seconds a lap slower.
“I completely agree with Jorge here, I don’t want to say names but there are a couple of guys, we lap them two or three times, I think they should put a rule that if you go over 6 or 8 seconds a lap slower in timed practice, you are not on the level of the Motocross World Championship. When you go to MotoGP and F1 it is tenths or maybe seconds (between them). But also when I look at the US, fair enough, there are also guys outside the top 20 are also not super fast. Okay, lapping is part of racing but it should not be if I buy a bike today and I pay a certain amount of money I can race the Motocross World Championship, that should not be possible.”
