The young American, who had needed time earlier in the season to acquaint himself with the vastly different racing scene in Europe, controlled the weekend from first practice. Already more than a second faster than his closest rival in free practice, he surged to his first pole position and dominated the opening moto on Saturday from start to finish, controlling his closest chaser whilst building up a fourteen second cushion over the remainder of the field. Grittily emerging in front from a wheel-to-wheel battle through the first few turns in the second race on Sunday morning he quickly took command again and once more stayed out of reach of his chasers as temperatures soared. The fifty point maximum has lifted Tristan to tenth in the series standings.
Marshal Weltin made it a double podium for Bud Racing with two consistent third-placed motos; on Saturday he raced top three throughout but had to charge up the leaderboard from an initial sixth on Sunday morning to snatch third in the moto and over the weekend in total on the very last lap of racing. He has now advanced to seventh in the series standings prior to the two final rounds in August and September.
Morgan Lesiardo had a frustrating weekend. The Italian was struck in the face by a rock already on the opening lap of racing on Saturday and needed several laps to collect himself again before racing from twenty-fifth to thirteenth. Still feeling a little dizzy on Sunday morning he converted an initial fourteenth place into twelfth at the chequered flag, showing his fighting spirit as he secured that position on the very lap of the race. The Monster Energy Kawasaki MX2 Racing Team youngster has surrendered the series red plate, but he will now enter the final two rounds with renewed vigour, determined to pull back the eight points which separate him from the new points leader.
Tristan Charboneau: “What a weekend! One, one, one, nothing could be better this weekend! Honestly it was a difficult track, you just needed to take it easy, find the traction, use the bumps stuff like that. It’s a great weekend for Americans as my teammate Marshal is also on the podium, awesome; I can’t feature a better weekend! Both holeshots helped me for sure, then I didn’t make any mistakes; in Russia I won one moto but it was a muddy race, this time the conditions were more normal and it’s great to finally win a round of the series.”
Marshal Weltin: “I feel good on this track, I like it and finally had a good qualifying session and a good gate pick. I put myself in a good position at the start of both races; it’s great to have this first podium. I can’t thank enough the Monster Energy Bud Kawasaki team; they super support us even if the results have not always been what we were expecting. We have a break in the series now, but I will continue to work hard to prepare for the rest of the season.”
Morgan Lesiardo: “This weekend was really bad for me, but that’s the sport and I will be stronger at the next round. In the first race I was in the top five after the start when I got a big stone in my face. For one lap I didn’t have clear vision and lost so many positions; I struggled all race and couldn't come back higher than thirteenth position. Today my start was pretty good, but again I had vision troubles and on this sandy, bumpy track it was terrible. I will now race a couple of GPs; I’m sure that this experience will help me to be stronger for the last two rounds of the European 250.”