Maxime Renaux reminded the world just how good he can be when he is fully healthy! An all-out battle with Romain Febvre on Saturday confirmed Renaux was back to his best form then, in the oppressive heat on Sunday, Renaux went 1-2 to underline the fact his is finally injury free after two years of pain with his broken foot and ready to really show everyone what he can do on the 450.
And he did it in what turned out to be a brilliant Argentinian GP with a HUGE crowd to give the MXGP opener the atmosphere and track it deserves.
Renaux followed a fast Febvre home in race with the the Kawasaki rider pumped with his win but it was all Renaux in race two after he pushed quickly into the lead passing Mattia Guadagnini and checking out with neither Febvre, once he got into second or Gajser, once he got into third, able to make any inroads on Renaux’s nine second lead. This was a brilliant performance from the Yamaha rider.
Renaux said: “It was a nice race, I got a gap and could manage all moto. I am super happy, we have many races to come, so let’s focus on that.“
But Febvre and Gajser can be satisfied. Febvre showed he has race winning pace and says he is righty where he needs to be while Gajser played it smart and didn’t risk anything all weekend going 3-3-3. Solid start but he now knows who his biggest title contenders are and that Renaux is back to his best.
Ducati shone brightly in their MXGP full season debut, a holeshot for Seewer in race one and a holeshot for Guadagnini in race two show that they are creating a brilliant bike – and that is still the stock engine!
Guadagnini rode fantastic to go 4-4 woth Seewer impressive in sixth in race one but crashes cost him points in race two as he came home 18th – but the bike is proven now at this level. What a great start to the MX chapter for Ducati!
Another impressive performance was Lucas Coenen, things were not looking goog yesterday but he produced two good starts and two strong top ten rides 7-8 for sixth overall, despite his two injured wrists showing grit and a very high pain threshold, Coenen has kept himself in the fight.
Glenn Coldenhoff had a great pre-season and that turned into a strong opening GP with fifth overall going 4-6 and that sixth came after he passed Coenen for sixth then crashed that dropped back to tenth then came right through to seventh with Horgmo, also fast all weekend, right in front of him.
In MX2 it was a topsy-turvy day with a wild last lap in race two! Kay de Wolf dominated moto one on a very soft and rutted track after a deluge of rain. Simon Laengenfelder was second with Cas Valk a fantastic third in his first full year of MX2.
Race two was totally different as Sacha Coenen holeshot on a now faster and drier track and simply checked out for the win, harnessing that intensity without the mistakes to let everyone know he is for real in 2025. A mistake early in race one meant he came from way back in the pack to eighth that comeback nearly got him the overall win after carnage for both de Wolf and then Laengenfelder in race two.
De Wolf got an okay start and came through to third only to go down and have to work his way from the back of the top ten, this gave Simon Laengenfelder the overall win, or so it seemed! Andrea Adamo, who’s bike expired in race one while running sixth, got through to second but third was still enough for Laengenfelder but the heat was getting to him and he crashed again, then was barely able to ride around when he went down again on the last lap and dropped to sixth costing himself the overall win and handing it to Kay de Wolf! Sacha Coenen took second overall with Laengenfelder third and barely able to stand on the podium such was his exhaustion levels!
Ride of the weekend was Liam Everts, who only announced he was racing a few days ago after getting the final all clear from the doctors. It was only three weeks ago he was allowed to ride properly and the young Belgian then went fourth overall at the first GP with 7-3 scores, a phenomenal effort both physically and mentally to come back to another overseas GP in the searing heat and his first race back after a scary crash that left him with a broken neck and even contemplating stopping his racing career. A brilliant comeback story!
