The beautiful track of Matterley Basin hosted the last RAM Qualifying Races of the season on Saturday for the MXGP of Great Britain.
One of the riders’ favourite tracks gave them a lot to work for as it challenges everyone across the board with its high speed and changes of rhythm that proved to offer some exciting battles.
In MXGP, the newly MXGP World Champion Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing’s Jorge Prado celebrated his title with his 11th pole position of the season in front of the ever-consistent Kawasaki Racing Team’s Romain Febvre. Rounding the top three was Team HRC’s Tim Gajser.
In MX2, the outstanding Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing’s Simon Laengenfelder shined again with his 5th RAM Qualifying Race win of the season on what seems to be a successful track for him as he won his first MX2 Grand Prix of his career last season. The new MX2 World Champion Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Andrea Adamo showed up with a 2nd place in front of Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 Team’s Jago Geerts.
In EMX250, Team VRT KTM Factory Juniors’ Marc-Antoine Rossi managed to come out victorious in the first race while in EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing, the title was decided with an immense performance from MJC Yamaha Official EMX125’s Janis Reisulis who controlled the race early to win it comfortably and with it secured his first EMX125 European Title before jumping to EMX250. Reisulis who won five rounds this season, showed a lot of talent and power this season.
The day was closed by a cool Paddock Show that saw the MXGP and MX2 World Champions, Jorge Prado and Andrea Adamo being introduced to the public along with the MX2 RAM Qualifying Race winner Simon Laengenfelder. The other guests present were the EMX250 European Champion Hutten Metaal Yamaha Racing Team’s Andrea Bonacorsi and EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing European Champion Janis Reisulis. The home heroes MRT Racing Team Beta’s Ben Watson who will represent Team Great Britain at the 2023 Monster Energy FIM MXoN and Shaun Simpson who got welcomed cheering fans.
In MXGP, it was the best starter of the year Jorge Prado who got the better of the pack and came out of the first couple of laps at the front ahead of Romain Febvre and Tim Gajser. The front three riders quickly pulled away from the other riders and created a consequent gap with the best of the rest Team HRC’s Rubén Fernández. Things seemed to be set at the top for the entire race although Febvre started to pick up his pace to get closer to the leader Prado. The late charger specialist Febvre gave some cold sweat to Prado who had to stay focused until the very last turn to maintain the lead. The Gold Plate showed that he can keep his composure in all circumstances and won the race in the end less than a second in front of Febvre. Gajser could see them battling in front of him but settled for another good 3rd place.
Fernandez on his side rode a consistent and solitary race in 4th for the whole race without being worried by anyone. Behind him, Ship to Cycle Honda SR Motoblouz’s Valentin Guillod showed an incredible determination and pace as he found himself in 7th place on the start to quickly take on his countryman Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team’s Jeremy Seewer and Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team’s Maxime Renaux over the course of a couple of turns to move up 5th on the opening lap. The Swiss maintained his position until the ed of the race. Renaux on the other side, went down when Guillod passed him and picked himself up well behind to finish in 18th place. Seewer hanged on in 6th but on lap 2 of 10, made a mistake and picked himself up in 15th place. The Swiss battled the whole race to move forward and finished frustratingly just outside the points in 11th place. It was a solid day for Team Gebben Van Venroy Yamaha Racing’s Calvin Vlaanderen who started in 7th but capitalised on Seewer’s mistake to move up to 6th. The Dutch rider managed to keep the 6th place until the end while his countryman Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team’s Glenn Coldenhoff didn’t take the best start as he got into 9th but powered through on lap 2 to pass De Baets Yamaha MX-Team’s Benoit Paturel to move up to 7th and finished there. Paturel clinched another top 10 and raced consistently in 8th place.
The riders rounding the top 10 were once again Standing Construct Honda MXGP’s Pauls Jonass who shows that he can gets good results riding the whole way through 9th while MRT Racing Team Beta’s Alessandro Lupino got score a point with the 10th place which is really encouraging for the Sunday races. His teammate and home rider Ben Watson struggled to get a good start and found himself battling to get the 13th place.
Jorge Prado: “It was a good race as I started first and obviously got the win. I’m very happy for today. It was really nice and the track is very good this year, I was enjoying it a lot!”
MXGP – RAM Qualifying Race – Top 10 Classification: 1. Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), 25:48.553; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:02.307; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:07.196; 4. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:28.255; 5. Valentin Guillod (SUI, Honda), +0:30.429; 6. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:30.922; 7. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Yamaha), +0:32.383; 8. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:50.620; 9. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Honda), +0:53.349; 10. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, Beta), +0:58.350
MXGP – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 900 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 816 p.; 3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, YAM), 719 p.; 4. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, YAM), 659 p.; 5. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 619 p.; 6. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 570 p.; 7. Alberto Forato (ITA, KTM), 490 p.; 8. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 456 p.; 9. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 340 p.; 10. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 314 p
In MX2, the battle raged throughout the whole board and it was Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Sacha Coenen who took the best start in front of Simon Laengenfelder and his brother Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Lucas Coenen. On the opening lap, L.Coenen overtook Laengnefelder for 2nd and we saw that we were going to see a battle between the two brothers for the lead but Laengenfelder decided otherwise when he made outstanding moves to overtake them both and take the lead on the turn of lap 1. Laengenfelder was on a league of his own and flew to victory with a very good margin.
L.Coenen was battling with his brother when he went down on lap 2 of 10. The race for him was done as he picked himself up in 14th and finished in 13th place. S.Coenen on his side raced in 2nd place until lap 5 when couldn’t contain the pace of the Gold Plate Andrea Adamo. Adamo showed a lot of composure to finish 2nd. Things got bad to worse for S.Coenen as Jago Geerts pushed behind for several laps. S.Coenen showed incredible bravery as he held his ground for a while but had to concede on lap 8. Geerts and Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Roan Van de Moosdijk found the way to pass him one after the other and S.Coenen had to settle for 5th in the end.
Geerts went on to finish 3rd and lost 2 points to his closest rival, Laengenfelder for the 2nd place on the final Championship podium. With 2 points separating them before Sunday races, the battle will be immense for both riders. Van De Moosdijk managed to shadow Geerts to finish 4th in the end.
The ride of the day was for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Kay de Wolf who following a bad start going 12th in the opening lap, the Dutch rider displayed all his skills to overtake riders after riders. De Wolf pushed hard and put pressure on the newly EMX250 European Champion Andrea Bonacorsi who made the jump in MX2 to acclimate himself before next season. The Italian made a great race showing that he has the level to compete at the highest level as he defended amazingly on de Wolf and Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 Team’s Thibault Benistant over the last three laps. In the end the determined de Wolf still managed to pass the Italian to finish at a great 6th place given his start while Bonacorsi finish 7th as he kept Benistant at bay to leave him behind in 8th.
After crashing on the last race in Maggiora, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Liam Everts maybe felt still a bit bruised as he couldn’t get the best start and went 11th on lap 1. That didn’t stop the Belgian to get back at it and find his rhythm fight his way into the points. In the end he managed to salvage a 9th place and 2 points to stay in contention for the 2nd place in the Championship.
Another amazing performance was from the American Big Van World MTX Kawasaki’s Jack Chambers who fought hard after getting to 13th on the opening lap. Chambers gained 2 positions on lap 2 and kept a good pace to then capitalised on Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 Team’s Rick Elzinga’s crash on lap 7 to move up to 10th. From then on Chambers kept his rank with confidence to finish 10th and get a good point while Elzinga had to settle for 11th in the end.
Simon Laengenfelder: “It wasn’t so easy as the track was quite sketchy with ay hard spots. But I could pass the two Coenens for the first place and then I could make a nice gap and control it to the end. I’m really happy to take the 10 points for tomorrow!
MX2 – RAM Qualifying Race – Top 10 Classification: 1. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), 26:09.424; 2. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:04.044; 3. Jago Geerts (BEL, Yamaha), +0:16.008; 4. Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, Husqvarna), +0:20.287; 5. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:21.751; 6. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:25.725; 7. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, Yamaha), +0:26.805; 8. Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), +0:28.334; 9. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:29.597; 10. Jack Chambers (USA, Kawasaki), +0:35.905
MX2 – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 788 points; 2. Jago Geerts (BEL, YAM), 714 p.; 3. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 712 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 704 p.; 5. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 558 p.; 6. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, KAW), 541 p.; 7. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 536 p.; 8. Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, HUS), 530 p.; 9. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 496 p.; 10. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 377 p
MXGP OF GREAT BRITAIN QUICK FACTS:
Circuit length: 2,120m
Type of ground: Hard Pack
Temperature: 16°
Weather conditions: Sunny/Cloudy
TIMETABLE (Local Time GMT+1 )
SUNDAY: 09:40 EMX125 Race 2, 10:25 MX2 Warm-up, 10:45 MXGP Warm-up, 11:30 EMX250 Race 2, 13:15 MX2 Race 1, 14:15 MXGP Race 1, 16:10 MX2 Race 2, 17:10 MXGP Race 2.
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Or visit the official MXGP website mxgp.com
