Bou adds his third consecutive victory and it is enough for him to qualify in the next race to be World Champion
Raga was again very close to victory and won in the qualifiers
Cabestany stands out over Fajardo in third place in the provisional standings
Busto comes as a wild-card and sneaks into the final
The Palais des Sports in France’s second city, Marseille, hosted the third round of the
2017 FIM X-Trial World Championship
calendar. A race where Toni Bou has practically sealed his eleventh world title, as a fifth place in the last race is enough for him to be proclaimed World Champion again.
Although we are used to seeing
Toni Bou
win on a regular basis, the truth is that there is a lot of work and fight behind it. The race in Marseille was one of them, as Toni qualified in third position after a very close qualifying round that did not allow for mistakes or concessions. However, he made amends in the sprint races and was able to come out behind in the grand finale.
RAGA WINS THE QUALIFIER AND BUSTO GETS INTO THE FINAL
Adam Raga
was the main protagonist of the qualifying, achieving first place with only 2 penalty points, to
4 for Albert Cabestany
and 5 for Bou. The other big surprise was Jaime
Busto
, who for the first time managed to sneak into the grand final, leaving out another of the big favourites,
Jeroni Fajardo
, and his teammate Fujinami, both tied with 16 points. The latter two were playing for fifth place by jump-off in the speed test, ending in favor of the Japanese driver.
Behind Fajardo, in seventh position, finished James Dabill, with 18 points, with Franzi Kadlec closing the classification with 21 points.
The final round had its turning point in the second zone of the five that made up the course. Here Bou scored a spectacular zero, while his rivals were unable to surpass him.
From here they had another decisive area, the fourth, where both Raga and Bou scored a point for supporting the skid plate, as well as an additional point for the TRS for time. Thus they reached the last zone with Bou already mathematically winning, with 3 points and Raga with 9. A zone that Raga overcame cleanly and Bou added a fiasco, being separated from each other by just one point.
The podium was completed by a Cabestany who was not close to the previous records, but they were enough to overtake Busto and add a new podium that consolidates him in the third provisional position of the championship.
The fourth and final race of the FIM X-Trial World Championship will take place on Friday, March 31 in Nice, France.
XTRIAL MARSEILLE 2017 CLASSIFICATION
PILOT STATEMENTS
Toni Bou (1st)
We suffered a lot today. In qualifying I finished third and I had to win the races to come out last in the Final. I started focused and in zone 2 I got a gap with the rivals that was decisive. You couldn’t make mistakes and luckily I was able to win before the end of the trial and the fiasco of the last section was an anecdote… We can’t fail in trials with so few areas. Now all that’s left is Nice, where we’ll have to focus on securing the eleventh title.
Adam Raga (2nd)
The first lap was almost perfect, with very few mistakes and riding very well, which is the most important thing for me. I’m very happy with the bike, it’s giving me great confidence. It’s very important to win, even if it’s in the first round. In the final I had good riding despite the failure in the second section. However, we are very happy, we have room to improve, the image we are giving is very good and I am sure that better results will come soon.
Jaime Busto (4th)
I’m happy, really. Today went much better than in the indoors I did and it was a pity that in the final I made a small mistake, I got the wrong speed. But the balance, despite that, is good. I would like to race more indoors so that I can have more options, of course, but I hope to have a good season this year so that I can qualify directly next season.
Takahisa Fujinami (5th)
It was a race in which I expected a bit more. I didn’t go well or badly, I finished fifth and I didn’t make it to the final. The areas were very difficult, you couldn’t fail. Jaime did well and the pressure got over me. I wanted to improve his score, I wanted to go through to the final, but looking for zero I made a fiasco. The draw with Jeroni meant that we decided 5th in the speed zone and I beat him. I want to congratulate Toni and Jaime for a good race.
