Febvre: “life has changed in the last few weeks”
Yamaha Factory Racing rider Romain Febvre is undoubtedly the man of the moment in the MXGP class with his two victories in a row and in a spectacular way last weekend in Italy. The 23-year-old Frenchman won the first series with an lead of almost twenty-five seconds, but had a spectacular crash in the second series and still rode to sixth place with a damaged YZ450FM to take the GP victory. He has not missed the podium once in the last four matches. Here's what he had to say after an exclusive interview with this fast Frenchman.
Romain, can you do better or faster?
Yep, the first series was pretty good! With the mud the start was very important, I was second behind Philippaerts and we soon had a gap on the other so I took my time to pass him neatly. I immediately drove away from him and even got a lead of twenty-four seconds.
It seemed to be easy…
Yes, but it wasn't! Although when you start to get a big lead, you also start to ride more relaxed and easier. You enjoy it and you can keep going faster.
What happens in the days after a Grand Prix victory? Have you felt that for a while and how do you deal with what you have achieved?
I'm someone who doesn't like to change some things, but if you win you get some more phone calls and you have to give more interviews to the press here and there. So life has changed a little bit over the last few weeks, but I'm still trying to keep my routine going and I think I'm doing pretty well at the moment.
Your teammate Jeremy Van Horebeek said he had some new stuff on his Yamaha this weekend… you too?
We had tests last Tuesday and Wednesday and we were able to improve the engine again. It was definitely an improvement this weekend. We continue to work with the team. When I crossed the finish line and the TV interviews were over, they already asked me if there were things they could improve further. I think we took a step forward this week. We will keep the same setting for Teutschenthal, but after that we will have a free weekend and we will go back to Italy for other tests. For myself, I think I am doing very well and you can immediately see that on the bike during the races. I don't think I need to change that, but we can always improve the engine
Finally, you won your home GP in front of an exuberant French audience, here in Italy the turnout was also great and in Germany there will also be a lot of people on their feet. You obviously like big crowds?
France in particular was really special and that will certainly not be the case for the other GPs before me. Winning your home GP is always fun and it was really great. Here the fans were really for the Italians, but there were still some French fans here. In Germany they will all come for Max Nagl. Maybe the pressure is starting to come a bit now… but even when we were in France it didn't bother me that much. I think it will be fine.
Text: Adam Wheeler / OTOR
Photo: Yamaha
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