Hot conditions at Kegums, south-east of Riga, made life a little tougher for the riders in what was already a technically demanding course, largely flat in its topography but rippled with sharp bumps and unforgiving with its pace. 17,000 spectators visited the Grand Prix which was the ninth round of fifteen in the 2010 FIM World Championship and the second of three consecutive events.

Osborne, who had suffered with a stomach illness on Friday evening, could only place 11th in the Qualification Heat. The 20 year old crashed on the first corner of Moto1 and his potent Cosworth-powered YZ250F was struck by another machine. His silencer was crumpled and bent under the seat. After two laps of attempting to gain ground from the rear of the pack Osborne pulled into the pits to change the unit but soon afterwards withdrew from the race with the likelihood of reaching a points-scoring position verging on the impossible.

A better launch in Moto2 saw the ‘podiumee’ in the USA, France and Germany crank his pace up to the point where he embarked on an attack of Joel Roelants for 5th place at the climax of the 35 minutes and 2 laps. With a little help from a gaggle of backmarkers, including the ‘width’ of team-mate Mel Pocock, Osborne grabbed the position only a few hundred metres before the flag.

Pocock himself recovered from an early fall in Moto1 and a push to the outside of the track on the opening turn of Moto2 to rally to a brace of 17th positions and his best points scores for five rounds.

Osborne is still 5th in the world championship and 3 points ahead of Shaun Simpson. Pocock is 20th.

The Grand Prix of Sweden at the undulating Uddevalla circuit will be the tenth stop on the FIM calendar for the team and the last of their three race spell. A hiatus of three weeks will take place before Osborne attempts to stretch his lead in the Maxxis British Championship with round five of eight at Foxhills.

Zach Osborne:
“The crash was my fault. I shouldn’t have been in that position and someone ran over the back of the bike and broke the pipe. I stopped in the pit thinking that I could get back out and run on the track with the leaders because when people see them coming they tend to move over and that would have helped win positions but it took a bit longer to change the pipe than we thought and it would have been impossible to get near the points. It seemed pointless to grind out a race on an already difficult track. The second moto was decent. It took me a few laps to get going because I hadn’t had a chance to set my pace in the first race. After twenty minutes or so I felt quite comfortable and confident and made some passes. I was not podium material this weekend and I can accept that and go on to next weekend and try to do a bit better. Sweden is a new track but I am keen to do well there.”

Mel Pocock:
“Yesterday was a hard day for me for various reasons but I picked it up today. In the first race I had an awesome start and was inside the top ten when I got a bit too excited and stupidly dropped the bike on the fourth corner. I went all the way back to where I normally am and had to start the trail of picking off the riders. I came up through to 17th which was a strong ride but it could have been much better and easier, but I did learn my lesson. I was looking for a similar start in the next race but Butron washed-out in front of me and I had to seat-bounce over his bike and nearly went into the fence. So another crap start. When Musquin passed me a group of riders bunched up and I managed to pass a few and reach 17th again. On the last lap I held Roelants up which allowed Zach to get through; so a bit of team-mate love there!”

Steve Dixon, Team Manager:
“The weekend did not start off too well with Zach being sick on Friday. Saturday was not too bad but he went down early in the first moto on Sunday and it was obvious there was something wrong with the exhaust, so I radioed through to the pit and they had another one ready. The change was pretty quick but on this track he was already far behind from the crash and it would have taken a miracle to even get one point so we decided to rest him for the second race. In the next moto I felt he took a little bit too much time to pass the riders he had ahead of him which meant Paulin had escaped in fourth. I guess after three podiums it was our turn to have a bit of bad luck and now we’ll just go to Sweden and hope to get back up there. Mel rode well in both motos and took some good points.”