After five rounds and 10 races, Clement Desalle (Monster Energy Kawasaki) finally broke the Red Bull KTM monopoly on the top step of the 450cc podium at this afternoon’s MXGP of Russia at Orlyonok, round six of the FIM Motocross World Championship.

The Belgian, whose last race win and overall win came at the track last June in horrendous conditions, proved that he likes the hard-pack circuit when it’s super-fast in the dry as well. A win in the opening MXGP moto backed up by second in race two gave Desalle the overall by two points.

“It feels really good you know, I’m happy,” said Desalle. “It’s been really tough since the beginning of the year with the two orange guys but I had a feeling I could get the GP win. The second moto I was clever and had good speed.”

Starting from the extreme inside gate, Desalle just missed out on the holeshot in race one behind defending champion Tony Cairoli (Red Bull KTM) and his Dutch team-mate Jeffrey Herlings but was quickly into second in the chaos of the first few turns before taking the lead halfway around the opening lap.

Red plate holder Herlings was unable to find a way around Cairoli as Desalle slowly pulled clear. Although they both closed dramatically on the final lap KTM’s amazing win-streak was broken as the world #4 crossed the finish line one-and-a-half seconds ahead of the Italian with Herlings almost two seconds further back.

France’s Gautier Paulin (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) was a race-long fourth ahead of 2016 champion Tim Gajser (Team HRC).

With a battered and bruised Shaun Simpson (Wilvo Yamaha) opting to sit out today’s races after his big qualification crash yesterday, Max Anstie (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) and Graeme Irwin (Hitachi ASA KTM UK) were the sole UK representatives – and neither could make an impact.

Anstie, feeling race-rusty after missing the last three GPs while he recovered from concussion, got bumped at the start and came through from 20th to 15th after 30 minutes plus two laps of racing and Irwin started well but gradually faded back to 19th.

Herlings holeshot moto two from Desalle, Gajser and Cairoli and took a wire-to-wire five-second victory but to retain KTM’s 100 per cent overall win record he needed someone else to step up and put a pass on Desalle.

Gajser didn’t have the pace to seriously trouble the Belgian and even Cairoli found himself going in the wrong direction as Romain Febvre (Monster Energy Yamaha) began his charge. Fifth on the first lap, the 2015 world champion shifted Cairoli out of fourth just after half-distance before snatching third from Gajser with two laps to go but he was 10 seconds down on Desalle at the flag.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom under the Herlings awning though – the result means he’s pulled another seven points on his team-mate and now leads by 23. Desalle’s victory was good enough to bump him up past Febrve into third but he’s already 74 points – that’s just a point shy of three moto wins – behind the leader with 24 motos left to run.

Anstie started outside the top 20 and lost a couple of places before regrouping and pulling through to 17th while Irwin went the other way, ending the first lap in 14th and then fading back to 23rd.

The world championship now takes a weekend off before resuming at the sand track at Kegums in Latvia.

MXGP Russia race two

1 84 Herlings, Jeffrey NED KNMV KTM 33:53.627 20 0:00.000 0:00.000 1:40.295 5 54
2 25 Desalle, Clement BEL FMB Kawasaki 33:58.693 20 0:05.066 0:05.066 1:40.217 14 54.1
3 461 Febvre, Romain FRA FFM Yamaha 34:08.725 20 0:15.098 0:10.032 1:40.355 7 54
4 243 Gajser, Tim SLO AMZS Honda 34:11.085 20 0:17.458 0:02.360 1:40.714 14 53.8
5 222 Cairoli, Antonio ITA FMI KTM 34:12.803 20 0:19.176 0:01.718 1:40.615 10 53.9
6 21 Paulin, Gautier FRA MCM Husqvarna 34:14.539 20 0:20.912 0:01.736 1:40.778 6 53.8
7 33 Lieber, Julien BEL FMB Kawasaki 34:35.495 20 0:41.868 0:20.956 1:41.618 9 53.3
8 91 Seewer, Jeremy SUI FMS Yamaha 34:40.667 20 0:47.040 0:05.172 1:41.471 7 53.4
9 259 Coldenhoff, Glenn NED KNMV KTM 34:43.297 20 0:49.670 0:02.630 1:42.226 12 53
10 12 Nagl, Maximilian GER DMSB TM 34:44.398 20 0:50.771 0:01.101 1:42.559 10 52.8
11 77 Lupino, Alessandro ITA FMI Kawasaki 34:45.111 20 0:51.484 0:00.713 1:42.631 12 52.8
12 6 Paturel, Benoit FRA FFM KTM 34:46.749 20 0:53.122 0:01.638 1:42.597 13 52.8
13 27 Jasikonis, Arminas LTU LMSF Honda 35:06.512 20 1:12.885 0:19.763 1:42.801 7 52.7
14 777 Bobryshev, Evgeny RUS MFR Suzuki 35:09.675 20 1:16.048 0:03.163 1:43.455 5 52.4
15 128 Monticelli, Ivo ITA FMI Yamaha 35:12.454 20 1:18.827 0:02.779 1:43.180 5 52.5
16 17 Butron, Jose ESP RFME KTM 35:14.542 20 1:20.915 0:02.088 1:43.319 19 52.5
17 99 Anstie, Max GBR ACU Husqvarna 35:19.280 20 1:25.653 0:04.738 1:43.499 9 52.4
18 89 Van Horebeek, Jeremy BEL FMB Yamaha 35:24.058 20 1:30.431 0:04.778 1:42.506 12 52.9
19 22 Strijbos, Kevin BEL FMB KTM 34:16.259 19 1 lap 1 lap 1:44.084 9 52.1
20 141 Desprey, Maxime FRA FFM Kawasaki 34:19.226 19 1 lap 0:02.967 1:45.441 6 51.4
21 7 Leok, Tanel EST EMF Husqvarna 34:23.171 19 1 lap 0:03.945 1:45.061 12 51.6
22 411 Kahro, Erki EST EMF KTM 35:21.739 19 1 lap 0:58.568 1:47.973 7 50.2
23 55 Irwin, Graeme GBR MCUI KTM 27:17.809 15 5 laps 4 laps 1:45.055 8 51.6
24 152 Petrov, Petar BUL BMF Honda 24:56.550 14 6 laps 1 lap 1:43.801 12 52.2
25 93 Bengtsson, Jonathan SWE SVEMO KTM 17:15.072 9 11 laps 5 laps 1:49.527 3 49.5

MXGP Russia race one

1 25 Desalle, Clement BEL FMB Kawasaki 33:30.843 20 0:00.000 0:00.000 1:39.091 19 54.7
2 222 Cairoli, Antonio ITA FMI KTM 33:32.355 20 0:01.512 0:01.512 1:38.324 19 55.1
3 84 Herlings, Jeffrey NED KNMV KTM 33:34.332 20 0:03.489 0:01.977 1:38.494 19 55
4 21 Paulin, Gautier FRA MCM Husqvarna 33:56.787 20 0:25.944 0:22.455 1:39.680 9 54.4
5 243 Gajser, Tim SLO AMZS Honda 34:04.975 20 0:34.132 0:08.188 1:40.243 8 54.1
6 89 Van Horebeek, Jeremy BEL FMB Yamaha 34:09.924 20 0:39.081 0:04.949 1:40.776 7 53.8
7 461 Febvre, Romain FRA FFM Yamaha 34:15.122 20 0:44.279 0:05.198 1:39.863 18 54.3
8 33 Lieber, Julien BEL FMB Kawasaki 34:16.283 20 0:45.440 0:01.161 1:40.186 15 54.1
9 91 Seewer, Jeremy SUI FMS Yamaha 34:16.795 20 0:45.952 0:00.512 1:40.364 13 54
10 27 Jasikonis, Arminas LTU LMSF Honda 34:26.719 20 0:55.876 0:09.924 1:39.718 12 54.4
11 77 Lupino, Alessandro ITA FMI Kawasaki 34:29.745 20 0:58.902 0:03.026 1:41.483 11 53.4
12 6 Paturel, Benoit FRA FFM KTM 34:30.869 20 1:00.026 0:01.124 1:41.551 9 53.4
13 777 Bobryshev, Evgeny RUS MFR Suzuki 34:36.116 20 1:05.273 0:05.247 1:41.703 12 53.3
14 22 Strijbos, Kevin BEL FMB KTM 34:44.597 20 1:13.754 0:08.481 1:42.154 9 53.1
15 99 Anstie, Max GBR ACU Husqvarna 34:46.886 20 1:16.043 0:02.289 1:42.309 17 53
16 12 Nagl, Maximilian GER DMSB TM 34:49.736 20 1:18.893 0:02.850 1:41.509 18 53.4
17 152 Petrov, Petar BUL BMF Honda 35:04.190 20 1:33.347 0:14.454 1:42.858 19 52.7
18 17 Butron, Jose ESP RFME KTM 35:07.753 20 1:36.910 0:03.563 1:42.892 15 52.7
19 55 Irwin, Graeme GBR MCUI KTM 35:09.439 20 1:38.596 0:01.686 1:43.334 12 52.5
20 128 Monticelli, Ivo ITA FMI Yamaha 35:09.793 20 1:38.950 0:00.354 1:43.229 15 52.5
21 259 Coldenhoff, Glenn NED KNMV KTM 33:37.566 19 1 lap 1 lap 1:42.036 4 53.1
22 141 Desprey, Maxime FRA FFM Kawasaki 34:08.016 19 1 lap 0:30.450 1:43.801 6 52.2
23 7 Leok, Tanel EST EMF Husqvarna 34:46.165 19 1 lap 0:38.149 1:44.688 6 51.8
24 411 Kahro, Erki EST EMF KTM 35:03.330 19 1 lap 0:17.165 1:47.073 6 50.6
25 93 Bengtsson, Jonathan SWE SVEMO KTM 34:02.588 18 2 laps 1 lap 1:47.674 5 50.3