Frenchman Mickael Pichon surprised onlookers at the Grand Prix of Belgium by beating local star, and world championship leader, Stefan Everts for overall MX1 honours.
Pichon’s Tiscali Honda team-mate Brian Jorgensen grabbed the holeshot in the first moto, just ahead of Everts, Josh Coppins and Pichon. Pichon was the first to attack, moving into second in the early stages, and then taking the lead on lap 3.
Meanwhile, Everts – to the delight of the home fans – was soon behind Pichon in second, but then made a rare and costly mistake; crashing on the fifth lap.
That released Pichon and left Kevin Strijbos, Cedric Melotte, Steve Ramon and Coppins fighting for the podium; Melotte took third at mid-distance but crashed heavily in the whoops section, dislocating his femur. As a result, Strijbos would complete the moto top three, behind Pichon and Jorgensen, with Everts sixth.
“We were pushing really hard with Stefan, until he did a mistake; then I knew that if I stay on two wheels I will won the heat and that’s what I did,” stated Pichon.
“When I was behind Mickael I stalled the engine and the rear wheel locked!” explained Everts. “It was in a corner before a downhill and as soon as the engine stopped it threw me off the bike and I hit something with my head on the ground. It took me sometime to re-start and in the first laps I was recovering from this crash. Then I took a good rhythm but I missed some minutes to catch Steve and Josh.”
Race two saw Strijbos take the holeshot and lead in front of his home fans for two laps; at which point he was passed by Everts and Pichon. Pichon pressured Everts for the race of the race, but this time the factory Yamaha rider didn’t falter and went on to win… but his race one sixth cost him the overall to Pichon.
