Philippaerts 6th at Latvian Grand Prix

Yamaha Monster Energy Motocross Team's Gautier Paulin registered a 5th position finish overall at Kegums for the Grand Prix of Latvia, attended by 17,000 spectators for the ninth outing of fifteen in the FIM Motocross World Championship. The talented Frenchman was the highest-ranked 2010 YZ250FM rider from three Yamaha machines in the top ten of the MX2-GP class. The loose terrain - almost sandy and constantly shifting and churning into new bumps and ruts - presented a hard and physical outing for the riders and although the sunshine brought high temperatures, a breeze and relatively low humidity offered some relief. Despite less than ideal starts that saw him mid-pack in both motos, Paulin marked some decent speed in the tricky conditions. He diligently rose from 15th to 7th in the first race and needed a few circulations to overtake Jake Nicholls and Joel Roelants at the beginning of the second to then lap alone in 4th.

In 7th overall for one of his best results of the season was a reinvigorated Harri Kullas who guided his Yamaha Monster Energy Gariboldi YZ250F to 6th and 12th; a brilliant start in the top four in the first moto helping the Finnish teenager to equal a personal best race result. Just behind him in the ranking was Christophe Charlier who rode quickly and sensibly in the wake of several crashes on Saturday. The Frenchman, and European Champion, was 10th and 9th in what was a good Grand Prix for the Italian squad new to the Grand Prix paddock in 2010. Bike it Cosworth Yamaha's Zach Osborne could not stretch his decent run of form to four consecutive podiums. The American crashed on the first corner of the first moto and damaged his silencer. He entered the pits shortly after and fitted a new exhaust but lost almost two laps and was too far adrift of the rear of the field. In the second race he built up his speed slowly and attacked Roelants on the last lap to obtain 5th place (13th overall despite the DNF). Osborne is the highest-ranked MX2 rider in the current world championship standings with 5th and trails Jeffrey Herlings by 37 points. Kullas is 10th and Charlier 12th - both riders in their rookie GP campaigns - while Paulin has dragged himself up to 13th although missed the first four events. Round ten starts the final third of the 2010 FIM MX-GP World Championship next week at Uddevalla for the Grand Prix of Sweden. Gautier Paulin, Yamaha Monster Energy Motocross Team, 5th: "My best lap-time of the second moto was 0.8 away from the leaders so I know I have the pace. I lost too much time behind Roelants and Nicholls in the second moto so the first three had gone by the time I got into fourth. The track was so difficult and technical and for my style of riding it was physically very tough because you had to be so precise. My concentration, speed and physical condition was good and normally I ride very well on this kind of track but I need to improve my starts and then I will live with the leaders for sure and be going for the podium. I have been training hard to come back to the feeling I know on the bike and I am confident. I will have some rest this week and have a play on the bike to come to Sweden determined to get good results." Harri Kullas, Yamaha Monster Energy Gariboldi, 7th: "I am happy about this weekend because for the last few GPs I have not had much luck. In one month I had two small concussions! In the first race I had a good start and was third in the beginning. I pushed to see what I could do and had a good battle with Roelants for fourth but he was just a bit too fast. I finished sixth by the end and that was OK for me. In the second moto I was in the top ten again but I wasn't so sharp on the first lap and dropped a few places. I worked on getting my rhythm together and overtook a few people including Simpson on the last lap. Seventh overall is a good result but the second race could have been better." Christophe Charlier, Yamaha Monster Energy Gariboldi, 8th: "I was pushed out on the first corner of the first moto and I almost crashed. I had already gone down a few times on Saturday so I wanted to be more careful but I pushed back anyway and had some pain in my back and my arm. The second race was pretty good and I felt like my speed was decent. I had to calm down a bit after Saturday and after some bad luck recently I think this was a step in the right direction." Zach Osborne, Bike it Cosworth Yamaha, 13th: "The crash was my fault. I shouldn't have been in that position and someone ran over the back of the bike and broke the pipe. I stopped in the pit thinking that I could get back out and run on the track with the leaders because when people see them coming they tend to move over and that would have helped win positions but it took a bit longer to change the pipe than we thought and it would have been impossible to get near the points. It seemed pointless to grind out a race on an already difficult track. The second moto was decent. It took me a few laps to get going because I hadn't had a chance to set my pace in the first race. After twenty minutes or so I felt quite comfortable and confident and made some passes. I was not podium material this weekend and I can accept that and go on to next weekend and try to do a bit better. Sweden is a new track but I am keen to do well there."