Published On: 13 april 2013

In a beautiful setting and with a pleasant spring sun, Ken De Dycker felt great in his 'second home country'. Keeno won the qualifying moto in the MX1 ahead of Clément Desalle and Gautier Paulin. For Yamaha-Rinaldi men it was a black Saturday; Steven Frossard still had too many problems with his foot to be able to ride and 'our' Joël Roelants had to throw in the towel after he fell in training and suffered a (mild) concussion and had problems with his vision. No factory Yamahas at the start tomorrow so...

The surprising Santtu Tiainen took the lead from the outside in his first qualifying for the Belgian 24MX Honda Racing! Ultimately it was Xavier Boog who managed the holeshot, but soon had to hand the lead to Searle. De Dycker quickly advanced from 5th place and took control after five laps to drive to victory! Desalle, who finished second at less than three seconds, also made a good impression. The MX-Panda also performed well in the training sessions. World champion Cairoli had a poor start, seemingly effortlessly riding to fourth place. Paulin also felt like a fish in water in Arco. The Kawa factory rider had a poorer start, just like Cairoli, but he quickly came to the front. After Bobryshev's retirement, Honda World Motocross saw a bright spot in Max Nagl, who competed well and finished sixth. An unhappy Jeremy Van Horebeek has to start from 26th tomorrow. Kevin Strijbos qualified eighth.

MX1 qualification
1. Ken de Dycker (BEL, KTM), 24:19.968; 2. Clement Desalle (BEL, Suzuki), +0:02.524; 3. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:04.733; 4. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:08.581; 5. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +0:11.077; 6. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Honda), +0:14.100; 7. Xavier Boog (FRA, KTM), +0:22.286; 8. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Suzuki), +0:25.645; 9. Tanel Leok (EST, Honda), +0:30.109; 10. David Philippaerts (ITA, Honda), +0:37.095; 11. Davide Guarneri (ITA, KTM), +0:38.225; 12. Shaun Simpson (GBR, TM), +0:55.817; 13. Matiss Karro (LAT, KTM), +1:05.805; 14. Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM), +1:13.056; 15. Augusts Justs (LAT, Honda), +1:23.284; 16. Jason Dougan (GBR, Honda), +1:26.350; 17. Stefano Dami (ITA, Yamaha), +1:38.107; 18. Santtu Tiainen (FIN, Honda), +1:38.712; 19. Fabio Ferrari (ITA, Honda), +1:41.466; 20. Lorenzo Pedri (ITA, Honda), +1:44.099; 21. Mikola Paschynskyi (UKR, KTM), +1:46.855; 22. Alessio Della Mora (ITA, Kawasaki), +1:49.170; 23. Pier Filippo Bertuzzo (ITA, Yamaha), +2:03.080; 24. Lauri Lehtla (EST, Honda), +2:10.433; 25. Nikolaj Larsen (DEN, Honda), -1 lap(s); 26. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL, Kawasaki), -4 lap(s); 27. Jonathan Barragan (ESP, KTM), -5 lap(s);

Photos: Father Swijgers