British MXGP: Saturday wrap up
After a weekend off the MXGP World Championship headed to Matterley Basin for the eleventh round of the series. No doubt it is one of the best circuits on the calendar.
MX2
When the gate dropped for the MX2 qualification race it was Jeffrey Herlings arch rival, Dylan Ferrandis with the hole shot. Max Anstie also got a good start and was right behind Dylan, those two went at it in the early laps.
Jeffrey Herlings was buried down in tenth after the first lap as he didn’t get the best jump out of the gate. Jeremy Seewer had a crazy first lap on his Suzuki as he was in around the top five but had a small crash but he then passed Herlings!
Max Anstie was applying the pressure to Ferrandis for the lead and made the move on the fifth lap to the delight of the British crowd, they were loving it!
While all that was going on Herlings was coming up through the pack but he had an extremely fast, Benoit Paturel behind him. In the first couple of a nervous Jeffrey Herlings kept looking behind him to see who it was! Paturel followed Herlings the entire moto and applied the pressure. However, when Herlings made the move for Petrov on fifth that allowed him to get away from the French man. However, Petrov stuck with Herlings and Paturel was still right there – at one stage Conrad Mewse joined the battle as he had a fantastic ride in front of him home crowd.
In the end Herlings ended up fifth but it wasn’t the most covincing fifth place in the world. Paturel passed Petrov aroud the last corner for sixth, they were both on it and are two guys to look out for tomorrow.
Dispite Jeremy Seewer’s crazy first lap he rode a brilliant race to end up third and has the speed. The MX2 class could provide some great racing tomorrow as Anstie, Ferrandis, Seewer, Paturel and Petrov are all looking great out there. But of course never count out Jeffrey Herlings.
MX2 Results:
- Max Anstie
- Dylan Ferrandis
- Jermy Seewer
- Aleksandr Tonkov
- Jeffrery Herlings
- Benoit Paturel
- Petar Petrov
- Conrad Mewse
- Thomas Covington
- Brian Bogers
MXGP
The intensity from the riders in the MXGP World Championship at the moment is incredible, it is definately the fastest class in the world and it is providing some great racing.
When the gate dropped it was Tim Gajser with the hole shot, his starts have been on point this year and it meant he could just check out and take a convincing qualifciation victory.
It was all going on behind Gajser though! Jose Butron is a good starter and he was in second position for the first few laps holding his own. He isn’t used to the high speed at the front though and seems to fade. Nagl and Bobryshev were the first two guys to make the move and those guys had uneventful rides but good second and third positions to do them tomorrow. Bobby actually crashed in one of the practice sessions and hurt himself so he was riding in pain but the tough Russian is used to it.
Cairoli was in fourth in the first lap but he had a crashed in the second lap, he is making a lot of mistakes this year and that isn’t like the Italian. After his crash he worked his way up from ninth to end up in sixth which gives him a more than fine gate pick for tomorrow.
Butron when he was in fourth came under a lot of pressure and i mean a lot of pressure. At one stage fourth to thirteen position where just in a line and one by one the riders made their way past the Spaniard.
However, as good as this race was the main talking point is Romain Febvre. Febvre yet again had a shocking start which just isn’t good enough. He won’t win races by starting outside the top ten. He was stuck behind Searle down in thirteenth place for more than half the moto but then he finally made the move on the Brit. He quickly found his way past Glenn Coldenhoff and was on the rear wheel of Ben Townley. However, this is when disaster struck as word is they both collided but Febvre came off with the worst. He got took to hospital with concussion but it didn’t look good, it remains to be seen if he will go to the line tomorrow. It’s worth mentioning that they didn’t allow Gajser to take part last year because of concussing. Fingers crossed Febvre can go to the line tomorrow and it would be a disaster for the championship battle if he can’t.
Heading into tomorrow it looks like it’s going to be tough to beat Gajser but as we seen today anything can happen in this sport.
MXGP Results:
- Tim Gajser
- Max Nagl
- Evgeny Bobryshev
- Valentin Guillod
- Jeremy Van Horebeek
- Antonio Cairoli
- Clement Desalle
- Tommy Searle
- Ben Townley
- Glenn Coldenhoff
Article: Andy McKinstry
Pic: Youthstream
