Gajser maintains championship lead after tough MXGP of Flanders

MXGP
Team HRC’s Tim Gajser continues to hold the red-plate, maintaining a 24-point lead as they leave the MXGP of Flanders after his five-four results in the deep sand of Lommel.

After qualifying third in yesterday’s race, the Honda CRF450R rider was able to get two decent starts in today’s GP-scoring motos, which gave him good track position and made things slightly easier for the 35 minutes plus two laps at Lommel – possibly the toughest motocross track on the planet.

In race one, it took the Slovenian a couple of laps to find his groove and by lap five he was back into fifth place, but he never really looked completely comfortable and wasn’t able to make a move on the rider in fourth place, despite pressuring him for the majority of the race.

Race two started off better, with the #243 into third early on and keeping pace with the leaders. However, keeping your momentum high is a difficult challenge in the deep sand and near the end, he had to relinquish a position and ended up just missing out on the podium as a result. His 34-point total still means he holds the red-plate with six rounds remaining, but he’ll be hoping for much more when they line up again in a couple of weeks’ time at the Uddevalla track in Sweden.

MX2
After fighting through the field in the qualification race yesterday, Team HRC’s Ferruccio Zanchi powered around the first turn inside the top five and set about tracking the riders in front. He was soon into third, and then by the mid-point of the race, with chaos all around him, he moved up into second place. From there, he held a good pace and looked like he would get his first ever MX2 podium result, but on the very last lap, the treacherous Lommel track finally took its toll and he dropped down to seventh.

Hoping to show that same speed in race two, he unfortunately got caught up in the deep second turn and had to remount in last position. Showing that same determination as yesterday, he was able to fight his way through the field to 12^th before he received the chequered flag, but once again he was left ruing what might have been. He now has a weekend off before the series resumes in Uddevalla, Sweden which will be on hard-pack terrain and provide a much different test for the young Italian.

Race 1
1. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), 35:52.969; 2. Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +0:04.057; 3. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:07.207; 4. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:12.249; 5. Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:13.053; 6. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:16.611; 7. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +0:23.491; 8. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:26.859; 9. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:42.011; 10. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:45.760;

Race 2
1. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), 35:33.487; 2. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:07.317; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:19.423; 4. Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +0:31.202; 5. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:35.897; 6. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:44.840; 7. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:53.794; 8. Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), +1:12.130; 9. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +1:14.644; 10. Jens Walvoort (NED, KTM), +1:15.744;.. 12. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +2:12.140;

Overall
1. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 47 points; 2. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 40 p.; 3. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 38 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 35 p.; 5. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 32 p.; 6. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 32 p.; 7. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 29 p.; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 28 p.; 9. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 26 p.; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 23 p.;