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MX2, Xanadu, SPAIN, 14 Juillet 2019

Henry Jacobi fifth in Indonesia

Henry Jacobi took his F&H Racing Team Kawasaki to fifth place in the Asian round of the FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship at Semarang in Indonesia to consolidate his fifth-placed series ranking.

The combination of the heat and a slick hard-baked surface urged caution through the early laps of race one as the German held tenth place but after ten minutes he began his offensive, moving forward to seventh with a series of determined inside passes. Setting faster lap times than those ahead of him on a clear track Jacobi relentlessly closed them down but just ran out of time to make further advances as he missed sixth by just a quarter of a second. A perfect first turn saw him sprint into the lead on the opening lap of race two and he stayed second in the wheel tracks of the leader for four laps before he lost his rhythm after two narrow escapes on the slick surface and eased his pace. Another seventh-placed finish was sufficient to secure fifth overall on the day and Henry has also further consolidated his fifth-placed series ranking, extending his advantage over his closest challenger to eighty-nine points with six GPs remaining.
 
Henry Jacobi: “My first start was not so great and I had to ride hard for thirty minutes to finally get a seventh place. In the second race I got the holeshot and battled in the top three for a few laps but after I nearly had two big crashes I lost my rhythm and confidence.”
 
F&H colleague Adam Sterry displayed the patience and concentration necessary in the demanding conditions to secure ninth in race one after starting just outside the top ten, but the Welshman's second race was destroyed already on the opening lap when a collision left him to chase the field; he would eventually finish fifteenth. His perseverance has lifted him to seventh in the series standings, just four points shy of sixth.
 
Bud Racing Kawasaki's Mitchell Harrison showed good pace during the first half of each race but was forced to ride defensively in the closing laps each time as the effects of food-poisoning during the week inevitably took its toll physically; the American finished twelfth and tenth for eleventh overall.
 
Mitchell Harrison: “There’s no excuses but I didn’t enjoy the track; I just don’t feel like myself here and I was sick this weekend. We're progressing more and more with the bike settings and I’m happy with that, but this track was so special as you had good traction in some sections and then no traction at all in others.”
 
Teammate Brian Moreau showed leaderboard pace to hold seventh place for the first ten minutes of race one and held an initial fourth in moto two until an over-enthusiastic approach saw the French teenager crash out spectacularly each time and fail to finish either race.