Lucas Coenen had to wait two weeks but this time no mechanicals and two perfectly ridden motos at the undulating, spectacular but very hot and humid citcuit in Indonesia gave the 16 year old his first ever GP win!
Coenen, who was riding with bruised ribs, shadowed Liam Everts for 25 minutes in race one after Geerts crashed out of the lead, then made his move with three laps to go to win moto one.
In race two the only man he had to pass was his brother Sacha who holeshot but by turn two, Lucas was leading and pulling away. Even Jago Geerts couldn’t match the pace when he got into second and it was ultimately Liam Everts who would pass Geerts to go 2-2 for second overall.
It was an eventful race that saw him go from 7th to 4th, then a tip over dropped him to 6th but Liam, bouyed by his GP win last time out, was on fire on his way back up to second and one of his best GP moto rides of his career. Everts put in so much effort he couldn’t even do the podium interview!
Everts and Coenen are the fastest two riders on MX2 right now, showing how important confidence is. They both know they can win now and Coenen has won five out of the last six motos, and only a mechanical prevented a clean sweep of the last two round. The kid is unbelievably good!
Lucas Coenen: “It feels unbelievable. Two weeks ago I almost had. Now halfway around the world my dad is watching on TV. I’m so happy.”
Jago Geerts, who said he had a fever this weekend, made it three Belgians on the podium with a 5-3 score and is back in title contention and so is Everts. Both are now 58 points behind Adamo who has two hard fought motos, including coming from behind in race two after a mistake and a bar banging battle with Simon Laengenfelder in the opening moto.
Credit too to Kevin Horgmo, who took sixth overall despite dislocating his shoulder on Saturday morning during practice. He was even on the battle for third overall halfway through moto two – tough!
| MX2 – GP Classification |
| 1. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 50 points; 2. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 44 p.; 3. Jago Geerts (BEL, YAM), 36 p.; 4. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 34 p.; 5. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 33 p.; 6. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, KAW), 30 p.; 7. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 29 p.; 8. Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, HUS), 28 p.; 9. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), 24 p.; 10. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 24 p.; 11. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 19 p.; 12. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 17 p.; 13. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, HON), 16 p.; 14. Scotty Verhaeghe (FRA, GAS), 15 p.; 15. Emil Weckman (FIN, HON), 13 p.; 16. Delvintor Alfarizi (INA, HON), 9 p.; 17. Devin Warner Simonson (USA, KTM), 9 p.; 18. Jiraj Wannalak (THA, KTM), 5 p.; 19. Diva Ismayana (INA, KAW), 3 p.; 20. Nakami Vidi Makarim (INA, KTM), 2 p.; 21. Hassan Mohamad Zubir (MAS, HUS), 2 p.; |
| MX2 – World Championship Classification |
| 1. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 439 points; 2. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 434 p.; 3. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 417 p.; 4. Jago Geerts (BEL, YAM), 381 p.; 5. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 381 p.; 6. Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, HUS), 373 p.; 7. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 315 p.; 8. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 295 p.; 9. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, KAW), 268 p.; 10. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), 217 p.; 11. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, KTM), 170 p.; 12. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 155 p.; 13. Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), 137 p.; 14. Emil Weckman (FIN, HON), 110 p.; 15. Isak Gifting (SWE, GAS), 94 p.; 16. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 92 p.; 17. David Braceras (ESP, KAW), 79 p.; 18. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, HON), 65 p.; 19. Jack Chambers (USA, KAW), 44 p.; 20. Mike Gwerder (SUI, KTM), 43 p |
In MXGP Romain Febvre took his first GP since the 2021 season going 2-1 after a crash in race one while leading prevented a clean sweep on a track that Febvre was dominant on all weekend – even beating Prado out of the gate!
Febvre said: “I wait a long time and still I make a mistake the first moto which I’m disappointed about. I could have taken some points back. But I’m happy to win.”
Jorge Prado took advantage of Febvre’s mistake to win race one but was visibly exhausted in the humidity. A third in race two succumbing to a late race push by Jeremy Seewer after being second all moto still gave Prado second overall as he continues his march to the title with Herlings out. Only Febvre has a shot and he needs mistakes from a usually mistake free Prado.
Jeremy Seewer was third on the podium and was good all weekend in the heat but just didn’t have the extra bit of pace he needed to go for the win in either moto. Still, another strong and consistent day for the Swiss rider who is in good form at this point in the season.
MXGP – GP Classification
1. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 47 points; 2. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 45 p.; 3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, YAM), 42 p.; 4. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, YAM), 34 p.; 5. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 33 p.; 6. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 31 p.; 7. Alberto Forato (ITA, KTM), 27 p.; 8. Mitchell Evans (AUS, KAW), 26 p.; 9. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 23 p.; 10. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 23 p.; 11. Alvin Östlund (SWE, HON), 21 p.; 12. Ben Watson (GBR, BET), 18 p.; 13. Petar Petrov (BUL, YAM), 16 p.; 14. Hardi Roosiorg (EST, HON), 14 p.; 15. Lewis Stewart (AUS, KTM), 12 p.; 16. Nicholas Murray (AUS, HUS), 10 p.; 17. Hilman Maksum (INA, KTM), 8 p.; 18. Lionel Kerhoas (FRA, HUS), 5 p.; 19. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, BET), 3 p.;
MXGP – World Championship Classification
1. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 505 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 404 p.; 3. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 386 p.; 4. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 374 p.; 5. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, YAM), 371 p.; 6. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, YAM), 346 p.; 7. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 324 p.; 8. Alberto Forato (ITA, KTM), 256 p.; 9. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 229 p.; 10. Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, GAS), 203 p.; 11. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 202 p.; 12. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 136 p.; 13. Ben Watson (GBR, BET), 135 p.; 14. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, BET), 121 p.; 15. Brent Van doninck (BEL, HON), 114 p.; 16. Brian Bogers (NED, HON), 112 p.; 17. Alvin Östlund (SWE, HON), 106 p.; 18. Mitchell Evans (AUS, KAW), 105 p.; 19. Tom Koch (GER, KTM), 88 p.; 20. Pauls Jonass (LAT, HON), 56 p
Report: Jonathan McCready
Image: Full Spectrum