The Grand Prix of Germany and round seven of the FIM Motocross World Championship provided more ‘good with the bad’ for Monster Energy Dixon Racing Team Kawasaki with Tommy Searle taking eleventh place in MXGP (and surviving a nasty crash in the first moto) and Vsevolod Brylyakov defying some sickness to finishing seventh in MX2.

The Teutschenthal circuit – the staple home for Grand Prix in the country – was hard-packed but churned rough into a plethora of ruts and lines that increased the technical demands of the quick and narrow layout. 28,000 spectators entered the gates across the weekend for some early summer sunshine and pleasant temperatures even if the conditions saw a strong breeze also whip up dust.

Searle started the weekend in fine fashion and by holding the fastest lap-time in Timed Practice until the final seconds when Tim Gajser bumped him into second place. A reasonable start in the heat race was scrubbed with a crash when running a comfortable fifth and meant that Tommy had to enter the gate twenty-sixth for the Grand Prix motos.

Hitting a neutral on the first lap of race one meant a heavy fall when the former world championship runner-up was hit by Romain Febvre. Searle was already dealing with a knee ligament problem but, to his credit, picked up and finished the sprint in thirteenth. In the second race Tommy was again handicapped by his starting position wide in the gate but rode to ninth.

Vsevolod Brylyakov was dealing with some sickness and also had to make a late switch to his second bike before the launch of the opening MX2 moto. The Russian made his presence felt in the top ten of both outings to post a consistent scorecard of 8-9.

Seven down and eleven to go. The Grand Prix of Trentino is next on the schedule for Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki and a drive down to northern Italy for the third MXGP fixture in a row. Searle guards eleventh position in the standings while Brylyakov holds eighth in the MX2 championship.