Romain Febvre of Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP made it back-to-back wins on consecutive weekends in the second Indonesian round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship on the island of Lombok. The Kawasaki leader signaled his intentions already during morning Warm-up as he set fastest lap times and in the first GP moto he surged immediately into the lead on the exit from turn one, opening up a three-second advantage within just three laps and extending that to more than five seconds before a few mistakes started to creep into his game in the humid heat, allowing his championship rival to take advantage on the penultimate lap in a dramatic tussle. More determined than ever to turn it around in race two the Frenchman survived a shock moment on the sprint from the start-gate as a rival touched his front wheel but, remaining calm, he rode an immaculate inside-line through turn one to emerge second. Yet more hectic action as he lost drive a few turns later saw him temporally relegated to fourth but his outrageous speed took him back to second by the end of the lap and he immediately set his sights on the leader. His first attack repulsed in a dramatic duel the man in Green left no doubt second-time around as he swept around the outside and, lapping two seconds a lap faster than anyone else, he immediately raced clear. As the race entered the closing stages his main rival again tried to push closer but the Kawasaki man immediately responded to bring home a clearcut moto victory and clinch his second consecutive GP win in eight days. It was a fitting conclusion to a perfect Asian adventure for the entire KRT team and Febvre returns to Europe with his second place in the championship standings even more secure, having now built a forty-four point advantage over third.
Romain Febvre: "You cannot imagine how proud I am to turn it around in race two. I should have had that first moto win too, but I just made a few mistakes near the end and Prado capitalized; there were just two laps to go and I had no energy to come back at him. I was so disappointed but I could show him that the second moto is the key to the GP win. The humid weather made it tough for all of us, and those guys at the back of me are really young; they were pushing me but I showed again that I can still win. My thanks to all of the team and our sponsors for their hard work and support; we made it 1-1 in Indonesia, but now I'm happy to go back to Europe. We have won before at both Loket and Lommel so I look forward to the next two GPs, but most of all I look forward to being with my family again; I know they were watching online." KRT teammate Mitch Evans had to dig deep after waking up sick in the morning. He quickly moved forward to ninth in race one, but was clearly feeling the impact of the humid conditions during the later stages of the race, particularly through the energy-sapping rhythm section, and sensibly settled for twelfth at the finish. The Australian again found himself ninth by the second lap of race two and settled into a solid rhythm to maintain that position to the chequered flag. Tenth overall on the day, he has jumped to fifteenth in the series standings. Mitch Evans: "It was a difficult day for me. I woke up feeling a little sick this morning, so the main goal in the end was to get out of here healthy. We have some more new parts to test when we get back to Europe so I'm looking forward to Loket."