Salom takes third Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup win

Luis Salom today seized his third win of the season and extended his points lead to eight over American rider JD Beach, who was second at the French round of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup.

Beach fought all the way, but crossed the line 1.7 seconds behind his arch rival in an absolute thriller of a race. Meanwhile, 15 year-old Nelson Major took third in his home event after a fierce, race long, battle with 15 year-old German Daniel Kartheininger and 14 year-old Frenchman Florian Marino.

Salom went into the race confident having qualified on pole but the 16 year-old Spaniard had to push the KTM RC125 right to the limit as he fought-off Beach. `It was such a hard race,´ said Salom. `I pushed from the start to get away and my plan was to do the same as I did in Jerez. I could not get far away from JD though, he kept coming and if I made the slightest mistake he was there. Over the last laps I just concentrated on being very smooth and it worked.´

Beach, the 16 year-old American, actually snatched the lead in the middle of the race but could not hold the advantage. `In the end it was my braking that let me down, braking too early and too hard. I´m just not used to it. On the dirt tracker we don´t have brakes and I am struggling to learn how to use them. I got frustrated, I was really going for it and I could catch him but couldn´t stay ahead. At least I could run with him this time and I´m going to learn,´ he concluded after his fourth second place in a row.

Major was naturally thrilled to get on the podium, saying, `It has been just such a great weekend. I worked hard in practice and when I qualified on the front row I started to think that the podium was a possibility. The race was great fun. I think I had the advantage on the brakes and I made that work for me. I didn´t have the advantage on acceleration, I suffered a bit there but I made it up on the brakes. It was great fun.´