FIM World Enduro Enduro Championships and Enduro GP
EnduroGP 2016 – Round 1 and 2 – Morocco
A new era has dawned for the world’s elite Enduro riders with the first two rounds of the new EnduroGP class running in conjunction with the FIM World Enduro Championships’ usual E1, E2 and E3 classes and it was WEC legend Mathias Bellino (Husqvarna) and Aussie hard-charger Matt Phillips (Sherco) who created history by winning rounds one and two respectively in Morocco last weekend.
With an electric atmosphere enveloping the start of the championship, Bellino put his factory Husqvarna to good use on day one of competition to take the EnduroGP class win by 21 seconds from fellow Frenchman Johnny Aubert (Beta) and Phillips (Sherco).
“This is a great start to the championship,” commented Bellino at the end of a tough day in the saddle. “The day was tough – the terrain was dry but very slippery, it was very easy to make mistakes. But for me everything went well. I felt good. It was important to be consistent all day, and I managed to do that. I’m looking forward to day two now, which I know will be hard.”
Day two saw Phillips jump out to an early lead and the Tasmanian absolutely rode the wheels off his factory Sherco through some of the toughest terrain seen all weekend to take a 15-second win from Bellino while TM mounted Eero Remes came home in third.
“Yeah obviously really happy to have started the season off so well with little preparation, gelled really well with the little 300 4-stroke, it’s the best season opener for me to date so I gained great confidence. Team was great, calm and easy.
“For Sunday we changed the tactic a little, focused on the nutrition a lot, eating and drinking as much as possible, had a guy following me to give me food. Saturday I went out hard at the start – maybe too hard and couldn’t hold the pace.
“Now off to Portugal to prepare for this weekends race. EnduroGP is going okay but for the moment everyone is only focused on the class points, teams and riders aren’t getting paid to win GP, so it’s not the main focus.
“My goal is to win another title, would be great to do it this year.”
Enduro GP Class (Outright) Standings After Round 2
- Mathias BELLINO – 37 Pts
- Matthew PHILLIPS – 35 Pts
- Steve HOLCOMBE – 26 Pts
- Johnny AUBERT – 24 Pts
- Eero REMES – 22 Pts
- Alex SALVINI – 22 Pts
- Antoine BASSET – 17 Pts
- Taylor ROBERT – 14 Pts
- Loïc LARRIEU – 14 Pts
- Nathan WATSON – 12 Pts
E1 Standings After Round 2
- Eero REMES – 40 Pts
- Nathan WATSON – 30 Pts
- Jamie MCCANNEY – 30 Pts
- Gianluca MARTINI – 28 Pts
- Daniel MC CANNEY – 21 Pts
- Victor GUERRERO – 20 Pts
- Alessandro BATTIG – 16 Pts
- Rudy MORONI – 15 Pts
- Ivan CERVANTES – 15 Pts
- Anthony BOISSIERE – 11 Pts
E2 Standings After Round 2
- Matthew PHILLIPS – 37 Pts
- Mathias BELLINO – 37 Pts
- Alex SALVINI – 30 Pts
- Loïc LARRIEU – 24 Pts
- Taylor ROBERT – 23 Pts
- Cristobal GUERRERO RUIZ – 21 Pts
- Oriol MENA – 18 Pts
- Deny PHILIPPAERTS – 15 Pts
- Davide GUARNERI – 14 Pts
- Tommaso MONTANARI – 11 Pts
E3 Standings After Round 2
- Steve HOLCOMBE – 37 Pts
- Johnny AUBERT – 35 Pts
- Antoine BASSET – 32 Pts
- Jaume BETRIU – 24 Pts
- Manuel MONNI – 24 Pts
- Thomas OLDRATI – 20 Pts
- Luis CORREIA – 17 Pts
- Jonathan BARRAGAN – 14 Pts
- Romain DUMONTIER – 13 Pts
- Lorenzo SANTOLINO – 9 Pts
