The unique citadel circuit of Namur played host to round 13 of the world motocross championship this weekend and once again Stefan Everts took the overall win.
Everts earned his 78th career victory after topping the opening race and finishing third in the second race. Joshua Coppins took second overall in front of Michaël Pichon who won race two.
Cédric Melotte made his comeback at Namur, but back pain in the first race forced him to retire. Young father Everts now leads the MX1 World Championship with 579 points, Pichon is second with 479 points.
In race one it was Steve Ramon who briefly lead the pack, closely followed by Everts in second, Michaël Pichon in third and Josh Coppins in fourth.
Everts wasted no time and pushed into the lead by lap two and set a pace that the rest of the field were unable to match. Pichon maintained his speed and pushed up to second place by lap two, but crashed three laps later, relegating himself to seventh.
Josh Coppins and Steve Ramon made the most of the Frenchman's error and pushed up into second and third places which they held onto until the chequered flag, whilst Michaël finished in fourth.
Although Everts' team-mate Cédric Melotte tried to compete at Namur he retired from race one, on lap six whilst holding onto 11th place.
Melotte was suffering from extreme back pain from an injury sustained earlier in the year.
“I knew that I was only 60% fit before the start of the races this weekend and although I tried hard to compete in race one,” said Melotte. “After 10 minutes into the race the pain in my back was so bad that I had to retire. I will rest some more now and try to be back to race fitness as soon as possible.”
MX1 wildcard rider Billy Mackenzie rode hard to claim a credible tenth.
Pichon took the early lead in race two, but Everts powered his YZ450FM past Pichon in the wooded section and headed the pack around most of lap one. Stefan though made a rare mistake on lap two.
