Victory in Maggiora sees Gajser takes control of the MXGP championship

MXGP

Going one-two on the day, Team HRC’s Tim Gajser took his second overall of the season, in perfect conditions at the prestigious Maggiora circuit in Italy. After a rain-hit track victory in qualification yesterday, the track crew did a tremendous job to get the circuit ready for the two motos today, where Gajser also showed his prowess on a dry, rutted track to take the GP overall.

A huge rainstorm hit the circuit at around 7pm on Saturday evening, which threatened the Sunday timetable, but by the time the riders hit the circuit for their sighting lap before moto one, everything was in fine working order. Getting his customary start inside the top five, the Slovenian made a few quick passes to get his way into second, before he stalked the leader for the rest of the first lap. As they approached the finish line, he made his move into first place and didn’t look back. He had some pressure from behind, but he didn’t let it phase him and instead took an impressive race win to move a further three points ahead in the title race.

Knowing that starts were critical on this Maggiora track, the Honda CRF450R rider took the second moto holeshot and avoided all the chaos behind him. With second-place close behind, the pair pulled away from the rest of the field and had their own private duel for the fans to saviour. Unfortunately, just as it looked like Gajser had weathered the storm, he made a small mistake in a banked corner and had to remount in second place. Knowing that it would still be good enough for first overall, and knowing he had almost a 40 second buffer to third place, he cruised home to spark scenes of jubilation amongst all of Team HRC in attendance.

These one-two results, combined with the win in qualification yesterday means that he now reaches the halfway point of the series, an imposing 34-points up on second place and 71-points up on third place. It has been a great run of form for the #243 and he now heads to Indonesia for the Lombok double-header full of confidence and looking to increase that gap even further, in a country that he enjoys visiting, even if the actual Lombok circuit will be a new experience for the five-time world champion.

MX2

After such a successful Saturday, things didn’t quite go to plan on Sunday for Ferruccio Zanchi. He got a good start in race one, and got as high as sixth place and was pushing for fifth, but then a small crash dropped him down to 16^th. From there, he put on his customary charge to make it up to 11^th as he received the chequered flag but after the third place yesterday, he really wanted more. Unfortunately, in race two, he was unable to capitalise on his good gate-pick and was near the back as they rounded the first corner, but again, showing excellent passing he quickly made his way inside the top 10. Despite pushing hard, he was unable to progress any further than ninth, which was good enough for 10^th overall. It was still an excellent result for the youngster and he’ll learn from everything over the weekend and put it to good use when the series heads to Indonesia for the double-header on Lombok.

Race 1
1. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 34:57.023; 2. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:06.951; 3. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:14.257; 4. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:21.726; 5. Valerio Lata (ITA, KTM), +0:32.473; 6. Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +0:41.740; 7. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:57.784; 8. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:59.669; 9. Quentin Marc Prugnieres (FRA, Kawasaki), +1:00.960; 10. Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), +1:02.160; 11. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +1:17.696;

Race 2
1. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 34:07.146; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:02.064; 3. Valerio Lata (ITA, KTM), +0:04.869; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:05.400; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:06.014; 6. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:07.992; 7. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:14.858; 8. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:35.888; 9. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +0:36.190; 10. Quentin Marc Prugnieres (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:54.822;

Overall
1. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 43 points; 2. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 43 p.; 3. Valerio Lata (ITA, KTM), 36 p.; 4. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 36 p.; 5. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 35 p.; 6. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 33 p.; 7. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 29 p.; 8. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 27 p.; 9. Quentin Marc Prugnieres (FRA, KAW), 23 p.; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 22 p.;