Race One: It was Glenn Coldenhoff who took the holeshot on his Fantic machine as things got aggressive between Gajser and Prado on the opening lap but Prado wasn’t having any of it and made sure he stayed ahead of Gajser.
The Spaniard then made a move past Coldenhoff and then completely ran away with things at the front. Riding a different track to everyone else, impressive.
Gajser made a move for second but then didn’t look comfortable at all – out of sorts as he started to drop back.
Herlings was eleventh on the opening lap and as usual with ten minutes to go started to ride like himself and ended up second. It looked like Vlaanderen was going to be third but then made a mistake which promoted Gajser to third.
Romain Febvre has been dealing with a thumb injury and this time the pain got too much which saw him unfortunately retire from the race.
Henry Jacobi was flying in front of his home crowd and had made moves to get himself into fourth before a couple of costly mistakes but he still ended up tenth.
Andrea Bonacorsi had a strong race finishing seventh after passing Brian Bogers.
Race Two: It was revealed before the second moto that Gajser had really bad arm pump in race one and that was why he wasn’t riding like himself but he looked much better in race two. Prado got the holeshot but Herlings actually got a good start for a change as Gajser was in third. The front three set a very high pace around a technical and rugged race track.
Herlings and Gajser started to catch Prado at the halfway mark and with ten to go Herlings was right there – that’s usually his go time. However, Gajser had another ideas and made a really nice move on Herlings.
Gajser then set his sights on Prado and with a couple of laps to go was right with Prado – he was looking superb aggressive but then Prado responded before backmarkers caused havoc and got in Gajsers way. Never the less it was an impressive win from Prado who couldn’t afford a mistake.
On the final lap Herlings then closed up to Gajser again but then backmarkers got in his way so that was how it finished.
Calvin Vlaanderen rode well for fourth but was over thirty-seconds behind which shows how fast the front three were. Paturel also had a great ride for seventh on his de Beats Yamaha.
Prado now gets the championship and red plate back – Gajser is now two points back as the championship chase continues.
Race One:
Race Two:
Overall:
Updated championship standings:
