Michael Brown finishes 7th in Mallorca X-Trial
Michael Brown, the only British contender in the 2012 FIM X-Trial Championships missed out on the semi-finals of the fifth round of the championships in Mallorca, Spain. The Gas Gas UK rider made a good start to the event, but the low scoring qualification lap put Michael's study effort into perspective. At the top of the leader-board, Toni Bou (SPA - Montesa) added yet another victory to his campaign, Albert Cabestany (SPA - Sherco) stood in second with Takahisa Fujinami (JPN - Montesa) in third.
The event, held in the Palma city velodrome on Sunday evening has left Michael in seventh position with two rounds remaining in the championships. A comfortable eight point advantage separates the KX-energy rider from Spanish rider Alfredo Gomez (Montesa), however Brown is faced with a challenging nine point gap to catch Frenchman Loris Goubian (Gas Gas) in sixth place.
Michael gave a good effort to the event, and only dropped marks on three of the five qualification sections, unfortunately this wasn't good enough to catch the Spanish front runners who have dominated the championships this year. Amongst Michael's rides, two exceptional cleans where other riders failed, including the difficult second section.
Michael, talking about the event was naturally disappointed with his ride, "After finishing in fifth place last week, I thought I had a real chance to leapfrog Loris in the championships, but tonight's result leaves me with a much tougher challenge over the next two rounds.
"On the up side, I had some really great rides today, and I'm still constantly out performing Gomez, but there's no doubt in my mind that I have to lift my game to constantly achieve those top 5 results.
"The next round is in Milan, it's always a good event and the sections always a bit different. I have ridden their three times before, so hopefully my experience in the different arena will give me the confidence I need to really up the game"
Michael Brown will be travelling now to Milan for the penultimate round of the 2012 FIM X-Trial Championships, and hope to narrow the gap between Loris Gubian ahead of the final round in Paris.