The weekend at the popular venue did not start in the best way for the team with Osborne being hit out of seventh position on Saturday by perennially risky-Russian Alexandr Tonkov and failing to finish the qualification sprint. Team-mate Mel Pocock was running a decent 13th until a lapse on the last lap saw him drop three places.

Heavy rainfall on Sunday morning created a softer and rougher terrain but did not deter 22,000 spectators from clambering up the flanking rocky hillsides for a panoramic and unique view of a Grand Prix circuit that has been on each calendar since the start of the century.

Nursing tyre scrapes on his back (as well as a sprocket imprint on his hip) Osborne did well in both of his races. The 20 year old fought through to 7th in Moto1 from his entry far on the outside of the start gate and his second performance was even better as he recovered from a crash on the banked left-hander near the finish line to charge to 9th. Osborne attacked a posse of seven riders with twelve minutes remaining in the race and sped past six for his classification.

Pocock managed his third highest moto finish of 2010 with 16th in the second race and the result came about due to an excellent start that saw him entrenched in the top ten for the opening phase of the sprint. He was 26th earlier in the day after a crash proved costly.

Prior to Sweden Osborne was 5th and 37 points behind Jeffrey Herlings in the standings and has now seen that gap increase to 51 as the Dutchman finished 2nd overall. The American is still 5th and 15 positions above Pocock in the listing.

Bike it Cosworth Yamaha will now enjoy a rare free weekend, two in fact, before round five of eight in the Maxxis British Championship at Foxhills near Swindon. Osborne is currently leading the national series and Pocock scored his first podium of the season several weeks ago at Lyng for round four.

Zach Osborne:
“What happened on Saturday was not my fault. Tonkov landed on top of me and I have the tyre marks on my back to prove it. Today was hard from the outside and it was maybe an extra 60 or 70 extra feet to the inside of the first turn. The first race was OK but I would say the second one was my better ride; the fact that I came from so far behind to ninth on a track that was not simple for passing was pretty good. In a way I am disappointed with a 7th and a 9th because my speed here meant I should have been better than that. It can’t all be rainbows and butterflies though.”

Mel Pocock:
“In the second race I had a mega start and put some sweet laps in, hanging it out with those guys. I made a small mistake over the back in the same corner that I crashed in the first race and lost a few positions. I kept pushing but the decisive moment was misjudging the downhill after the pit-lane, because I kept the gas on a bit longer and hit a massive bump that put me over the bars. It could have been better but I am really happy with my speed and it was a confidence boost to be up there. Thanks to Ben, of course, for all his hard work.”

Steve Dixon, Team Manager:
“Zach was fast this weekend but unfortunately when he made the move past Tonkov the other rider then jumped on him. That gave us a bad gate pick but Zach made two really good races on a track that was difficult to gain time. He had some problems with fogging goggles but I thought he did really well and consolidated fifth in the championship even if we did lose a bit of ground to Herlings but there are ten motos to go yet. Mel rode a lot better here. He lost a few places and made some mistakes but he looked comfortable when riding in tenth and that’s where I hope he can be in the future.”