Kawasaki factory rider Pauls Jonass is slowly building into his season after coming back from injury recently. The Lavian and former World MX2 champion is showing signs of his old self, and with the help of the factory team, should be getting closer and closer to a podium finish in the coming months.

Jonass continued to make progress in Lugo, Spain last weekend, and completed a Green 1-2 in Timed Practice, just two-tenths of a second behind Febvre. The Latvian rode a tight line through turn one of Qualifying to hold an early sixth place. Unfortunately, the roll-offs on his goggles were damaged from the roost of the rider immediately ahead of him early in the race; he was soon forced to discard his goggles but defended bravely, only surrendering one position during the remainder of the race to finish seventh.

"I felt good on the track all day, even with the rain, but unfortunately on the second or third lap of Qualifying I got quite a lot of roost from the guy in front and the film of my roll-offs snapped. I tried to clean the lens with my finger but in the end, I had to throw away my goggles. A stop in the goggle lane would have cost too many places with everyone running so close so it was just a matter of survival; you can't attack without goggles, so I just had to protect my position. I think the track can take quite a lot of water but hopefully they will rip it a little this evening so it will be more technical tomorrow."

On the Sunday, Jonass twice raced through the pack for ninth overall after two incident-packed races. The Latvian fell at the first turn of race one after catching the trackside banking but was back to twelfth within three laps with great speed through the waves and he was eleventh at the chequered flag.

A bad jump at the gate in race two saw him initially eleventh but a series of forceful passes saw him move forward to seventh within four laps; he was sixth a few laps later before he tipped over in a tight right-hander two laps from the end to be pushed back to tenth. He has now further cemented eleventh in the series points-standings despite missing three GPs earlier in the season.

"I made life difficult for myself today with the crash at the start of race one and mistakes in race two. I came through quickly in the first moto, but I just blew myself up and got arm pump after I got to eleventh, so I just had to ride cautiously and stay there. I pulled out some good passes to sixth, with a gap to the guy behind, in the second race but then I had a small tip-over with two laps to go. I am disappointed with those mistakes, but on the positive side I was feeling good on the bike all weekend; the speed is there as I showed with P2 in Timed Practice and I was moving forward both motos so I aim to be battling for podiums soon."

A round earlier in Agueda, Portugal, Jonass, returning to race action for the first time since his heavy crash during practice at round three of the series on Sardinia, was progressing in each track session to post eighth-fastest time, just three-quarters of a second from provisional pole, in Timed Practice. The Latvian also took a good start in Qualifying to emerge fifth at the first split and he was maintaining that position until two falls in the difficult condition pushed him back to fifteenth.

"Overall, I felt good on the bike all day with good speed in practice and I was in a good position in the first laps of Qualifying. But then I just started to make mistakes; I was overthinking, trying not to crash, riding too careful and ended up going off the track a couple of times. There are days like this, but I'm looking forward to turning it around tomorrow."

Jonass made an impressive return to racing after a month on the sidelines as he claimed fifth overall from 4-8 moto finishes. The Latvian made the move for fourth halfway through race one after starting fifth and followed this up with a lonely ride to a race-long eighth in the second moto. Despite missing three GPs he is now back to eleventh in the series standings.

"It was nice to get back to the intensity of racing. I felt good in the first race and was rewarded with fourth, but I was a little disappointed about moto two; I just didn't find such a good flow but P5 overall was a good result first race back and I look forward to building step-by-step from here. The conditions were tough, but the track crew did a great job to give us a track where you could race."

Now into France in 10 days time where Jonas and the complete Kawasaki team will try and help their lead rider, Romain Febvre keep hold of that red plate and also hope that the Latvian can join the Frenchman on the MXGP podium.

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