MXGP had to wait for the last heat of an amazing season to know the name of its champion, with the City of Mantua Grand Prix that definitely lived up to expectations. In the end it was the big favorite, the Dutch Jeffrey Herlings, who won his fifth world title, second in the premier class.
The KTM driver was the dominator of this last stage, which unusually took place on Wednesday, even if he had to sweat the proverbial seven shirts to take the crown, despite a beautiful double win. After the first heat, in fact, he and his rival Romain Febvre found themselves paired at 683 points.
Jorge Prado was the quickest at the start, but the Spaniard soon stepped aside, giving the lead to Herlings, but also the second position to the French Kawasaki. Jeffrey, however, did not let himself be intimidated and under the checkered flag he went to sign the coupling that made Race 2 a real battle for glory: the better of the two would also have been the champion.
The script of the decisive heat was very similar: once again, Prado took the lead at the start, but this time Febvre and Herlings were in reverse order behind him. Which did not create too many problems for the Dutchman, who got rid of both during the second lap. And this time he was very good at misleading the opponent, who fell in an attempt to keep up with his infernal pace.
At this point the title was already in his hands, so he might as well have surrendered to the return of an arrembante Tim Gajser, but Herlings got us used to being one who doesn’t discount, so he kept pushing and in one fell swoop he went to take the heat, the GP, but above all the red plate of the world champion.
In any case, Febvre deserves the credit for having believed in it until the end, despite the fact that he was almost considered a foreign body to the battle that everyone expected between Herlings and Gajser. The Frenchman finished third in Race 2, so he missed the title by just 5 meager points. 20 instead of those paid in the end by Gajser, second in the final classification of the GP, but already started with little hope after the disaster combined last Sunday in Race 1.
But let’s now come to what was the other great expected protagonist, namely Tony Cairoli. After the podium on Sunday, the Tonino Nazionale was unable to give himself a great farewell to the world of which he was the master for at least a decade. In Race 1, unfortunately, he was forced to retire after a contact with Jeremy Seewer, from which his Yamaha came out with a broken gear lever. Also in Race 2 he did not go beyond the tenth place.
The real touching moment of the day, however, came after the race, when the Sicilian took the podium with the colors of the tricolor to greet his “family” for many years. Without him MXGP will probably never be the same, even if judging by the great battle we have seen this year it seems to have really left it in good hands.
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 35: 20.709; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0: 02.465; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0: 02.824; 4. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Yamaha), +0: 48.484; 5. Jorge Prado (ESP, KTM), +0: 56.162; 6. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, Husqvarna), +0: 57.371; 7. Mathys Boisrame (FRA, Kawasaki), +0: 58.107; 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Yamaha), +0: 58,590; 9. Ben Watson (GBR, Yamaha), +1: 00.075; 10. Brian Bogers (NED, GASGAS), +1: 02.615;
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 35: 29.493; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0: 01.497; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0: 41,814; 4. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Yamaha), +0: 43.028; 5. Brian Bogers (NED, GASGAS), +0: 45.510; 6. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0: 47.004; 7. Jorge Prado (ESP, KTM), +0: 50.991; 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Yamaha), +0: 58.563; 9. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Beta), +1: 00.963; 10. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +1: 04.187;
MXGP – GP Top 10 Classification: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 50 points; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 42 p .; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 42 p .; 4. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, YAM), 36 p .; 5. Jorge Prado (ESP, KTM), 30 p .; 6. Brian Bogers (NED, GAS), 27 p .; 7. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, YAM), 26 p .; 8. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 24 p .; 9. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, HUS), 23 p .; 10. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, BET), 20 p .;
MXGP – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 708 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 703 p .; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 688 p .; 4. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, YAM), 566 p .; 5. Jorge Prado (ESP, KTM), 562 p .; 6. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 545 p .; 7. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, YAM), 442 p .; 8. Pauls Jonass (LAT, GAS), 391 p .; 9. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, HUS), 332 p .; 10. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, KTM), 319 p .;
MXGP – Manufacturers Classification: 1. KTM, 842 points; 2. Kawasaki, 708 p .; 3. Honda, 702 p .; 4. Yamaha, 616 p .; 5. GASGAS, 486 p .; 6. Husqvarna, 359 p .; 7. Beta, 232 p .;
Tony Cairoli, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Photo by: Niek Fotografie
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