Two weeks after his debut on the factory YZ250FM Monster Energy Yamaha’s Christophe Charlier continues to improve his results and secured a career-best fifth position overall at a hot and difficult Nicolas España circuit for the first Grand Prix of Mexico. The fourth round of sixteenth in the FIM Motocross World Championship was watched by 25,000 spectators. The crowd surrounded a rough, rutty and tricky track formed of loose and sandy dirt.

The Frenchman fought for mid top ten rankings in both motos and came away from the pair of 35 minute and 2 lap races with seventh and fifth for his top five slot. The former European Champion claimed sixth overall in Italy and is gaining speed and race confidence in what was only his second outing so far this season after recovering from a broken foot.

Charlier was the sole Monster Energy representative in the final MX2 classification as Michael Leib suffered an injury to his right hand. Holding sixth position in the first moto, Leib, who started from pole position, could not avoid a fallen local rider and smashed his hand into the other motorcycle’s exhaust pipe. The incident led to two dislocated fingers and curtailed the Italian Grand Prix podiumee’s day.

After two races Charlier is 14th in the standings while Leib is 11th. Monster Energy Yamaha will now have to assess Leib’s recovery during the week to see if the American can be available for the Grand Prix of Brazil in seven days time at Beto Carrero.

Christophe Charlier:

“I’m happy with the weekend. It started badly and I really wanted something from this GP and for coming all this way. In the end I’m pleased with my performance and results. The team worked really well and on what was a tough weekend for us. We did a good job.”

Steve Dixon, Co-Team Manager:

“Unfortunately Michael hit a backmarker who had fallen in front of him and dislocated his fingers. He was sixth at the time and unfortunately that finished his race and day, which was really disappointing. Shaun was also in sixth at the start of the MX1 race and collided with David on a jump. It was no-one’s fault. They just touched and lost balance. Shaun unluckily dislocated his left shoulder. We’ve had a terrible run of luck. This is part of the sport but you don’t expect this sort of thing to happen all at once. We’ve been doing this a long time and we keep bouncing back. We have good people around us and we will keep on focussing on the next races. Hopefully Shaun won’t be out for long and we’ll see if Michael can be in Brazil. We’ve got everything ready for Beto Carrero and now we will have to sort something out during the week.”