Bike it Cosworth Wild Wolf Yamaha’s Arnaud Tonus was fourth overall at a hot Fermo circuit on the east coast of Italy for the fifteenth and last round of the FIM Motocross World Championship. The Swiss pulled equal on points for the final podium step for the second Grand Prix in a row and has finished behind Gautier Paulin in the final MX2-GP series standings with fifth place.

18,000 fans somehow found a ledge around the steep inclines of the slick and hard-pack track that was littered with jumps. The high temperatures (+30) made for a difficult set of 35 minute and 2 lap motos but Tonus – leading the MX2 line after Paulin’s decision to successfully tackle the MX1-GP field – was able to forge a strong speed at the site where he grabbed his maiden career podium in 2010.

Tonus started the weekend well with a comfortable and effective rhythm in the qualification heat and was half a lap from his second pole position of the season until a run-in with a backmarker saw the Swiss concede first place to Tommy Searle. Entering the gate second on Sunday he got off the line with the leaders and rode a lonely race to third position. The second outing started disastrously with a first lap fall that meant a hard race ahead. Tonus was able to get through from the rear of the pack all the way to fifth in an outstanding display that warranted a trophy. Although he went without champagne the twenty year old could feel content with another fourth and a decent finale to the 2011.

Monster Energy Yamaha’s Christophe Charlier was luckless in Italy. The Frenchman crashed in the first moto and lost time. He needed to enter the pits and was too far away from the top twenty to register any points. A determined charge in the second moto after another early slip delivered a solid eighth.

In the final MX2-GP standings Tonus has continued his rise at the highest level and set another career-best in his third Grand Prix term. The twenty year old ended ‘11 with fifth (compared to his seventh of 2010). Team-mate Zach Osborne missed the final five rounds with a shoulder injury but takes eighth. Harri Kullas, absent from the last two events with a broken hand, is ninth. Gautier Paulin, who rode exceptionally in MX1-GP this weekend, had already secured fourth place. Charlier was thirteenth after a campaign interrupted with injury niggles but has his sights set on a thorough winter schedule for his role on the works YZ250FM in 2012.

Tonus and Paulin will now represent their countries at the Motocross of Nations next weekend at St Jean D’Angely in France.

Arnaud Tonus, 4th:

“The podium didn’t arrive this year and we were so close a number of times. Anyway I’m happy. It has been a pretty good season with fifth overall and I’ve been quite consistent. I’ve had a lot of fun with the team and the bike and we have a great relationship so I wanted to ‘give it up’ to them, as well as my family and friends; it is because of them that I am here. I thought ‘oh man’ when I went down in the second race. I came back well and had a great rhythm going. I was catching Max but I made another mistake. I gave all that I had but it wasn’t enough for the podium.”

Christophe Charlier, 13th:

“A very hard day. The track was tricky because it was tough to find grip and also clear all those jumps on the 250 because I’m a big guy. I crashed in the first race and lost a lot of time to restart but kept going. In the second I came off on the first corner after the first big table-top and had to begin again way outside the top twenty. I pushed very hard in the beginning and arrived all the way to eighth and I had nothing left to give at the end. It has been a long year because of some injuries and low moments but I am really prepared to work so hard in the winter and get ready for next season.”