The MXGP World Championship headed to Finland for the fourteenth round of the series and a new track for the GP riders with the sandy Vantaa circuit. The track was rough but tight and twisty making overtaking very difficult.
On Saturday, a storm hit the circuit making things very wet and tricky, muddy conditions in the qualifying race. With the vision being difficult, Vlaanderen finished a solid eighth position.
The track was much drier for the main race day and the first race went well for Vlaanderen starting in seventh before climbing to an impressive fifth position.
At a track that was very hard to pass on, Vlaanderen was sixth in the second moto and looked like that’s where he’d finish but a crash with two laps to go dropped him down to seventh, but it was another solid GP.
After three MXGP rounds in a row, Vlaanderen and the Gebben van Venrooy Yamaha team will have a weekend off before travelling to Sweden for round fifteen.
Calvin Vlaanderen (7th overall): It was a challenging weekend in Finland. Things didn’t really go the way we wanted. Saturday didn’t start off well with some bike problems and struggling to find the issue. The rain came down and it was a muddy in the qualifying race. It was tough to pass and I rode around to finish eighth. On Sunday the track was better and looked forward to racing. I felt good on the bike and had good speed in the races. Unfortunately, I missed a bit the last 10 minutes of the races. The three GP’s in a row takes its toll on the body but we will rest up and be ready to fight in Sweden.
Photocredits – Fullspectrum Media
