After qualifying seventh the Bulgarian's hopes of success were dealt a blow on race day as he was involved in a crash at the first corner of the opening moto and had to defiantly battle his way through the pack, passing rival after rival to eventually finish sixth. A more fortunate start in race two saw Petar react quickly to ride inside a heap of crashed riders and nearly secure the holeshot; fifth on the opening lap, he advanced to fourth place on lap five and finished in that position to secure fourth overall in the GP and move up to the same position in the series standings.
Teammate Dylan Ferrandis returned to race action after a seven week injury absence to impress with his resilience. Despite his lack of race practice the Frenchman swept to fifth place in qualification and added a sensible ride to fifth in the opening GP moto. An unfortunate incident at the start of race two left him trailing the pack in the early laps but a determined drive through the pack once again earnt him a top six moto finish and secured fifth overall in the GP. Despite missing four of the first six GPs through injury Dylan holds fifteenth in the standings a third of the way through the series.
Vsevolod Brylyakov of Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki once again showed the speed which had taken him onto the podium two weeks previously in Mexico, but the Russian's results sheet was spoilt by a series of crashes after he had posted fourth fastest time in the timed practice. Several collisions pushed him back to nineteenth in qualification and a heavy crash in the opening GP moto cost him a lap and put him out of the points-scoring positions after an early advance to twelfth. Race two followed a similar pattern, but he fought back to secure a tenth placed finish. He is now eighth in the championship standings.
Petar Petrov: “We got a fourth overall which is not so bad, even if I think that I could have finished second in the second race. There was a crash in the first corner but I went inside and nearly holeshot the race. In the first race I crashed at the start and had to work to come back to sixth. It’s frustrating to finish fourth or fifth in the GPs; I've just missed podiums and now it’s time to get on the box. We’ll go in Germany with a lot of confidence; everything is very good, we’re consistent and we didn’t make any mistakes. The track was very bumpy in the second moto, so it was quite easy to make mistakes but I rode smooth. We’re now fourth in the standings and that’s good. We’ll work hard again this week to prepare for Germany; I really like the track.”
Dylan Ferrandis: “It was a tough weekend. On Saturday we worked on the setup of the bike as we had no possibilities to do this during the last two months. Sunday was not so bad; my starts were not so good but in the first moto I rode smooth and got a fifth. I was a little too optimistic in the first corner and crashed, but I did my best to come back from last to sixth. After two months without riding I feel tired at the end of a tough weekend, but I have no regrets; we know that this track is very rough, but it was my decision to come here. The first race after a break is always difficult; I’m sure that next weekend will be better.”
Vsevolod Brylyakov: “I’m very disappointed with my weekend; it was a rough one even if I posted good results during the practice session on Saturday. I had a few crashes in the qualifying race; they were not really my fault but that meant I had a bad gate pick for the GP races. I felt nervous too; it was a kind of home GP for me as it’s not far from home so my parents and friends were there and I think I burned myself out and made too many mistakes. I had a big crash in the first race, but the second race was better even though I crashed again. I’m not very happy with the results, but we’ll work as we know where we can be and for sure I prefer hard tracks to sandy ones.”