Honda HRC duo Ruben Fernandez and Valerio Lata both had difficult weekends at the sandy KymiRing circuit in Finland, costing points in their championship battles, but providing them with plenty of motivation when the series resumes in two weeks in the Czech Republic.
After a fourth in the qualification race yesterday, Fernandez had hopes for a podium heading into today and he was looking good early on in race one. He utilised his gate-pick well, powering out the gate on his Honda CRF450R inside the top five. He kept that position for the majority of the moto, only relinquishing it as the circuit got rough at the end of the moto. Race two started off in a similar vein, with the #70 even closer the pack round the first bend. Unfortunately a couple of corners later, he suffered a big impact from a rider behind him and was forced to remount at the back of the field. Showing his determination, he was scything his way through the field and had made it inside the top 10 in only a few laps, however unbeknownst to him initially, the earlier collision had caused severe damage to his bike, and he was forced to pull off the track. It was a big shame for the Spaniard as another top five result was within his grasp, along with a closing of the gap to third place in the championship standings.
It didn’t go much better for Lata in the MX2 class, as he couldn’t find any rhythm in the sand, on a track that was running a GP for the very first time. Throughout the weekend, he seemed to be fighting the track, rather than flowing with it and as a result, he wasn’t able to break into the top 10 in either race. His 13th overall is not the level he expects from himself and he knows he has to work hard to get better when we head to Loket, Czech Republic on July 26-27.
