The final destination on the FIM World Motocross Championship Callander has been hit. Mantova, which hosted this year’s Motocross Des Nations, is now deciding the MXGP Class title hunt. French Monster Energy Kawasaki rider Romain Febvre had control of the points lead with two rounds to go. Tim Gajser of Honda HRC sat a singular point behind him, while Jeffery Herlings off a brutal day last weekend dropped from first to third. The good news for the latter is that Herlings was a one-man wrecking crew at Mantova earlier this year at Des Nations. The Bullet had to enter the penultimate round with some swagger.
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MX2 Class
Moto 1
After picking up holeshot No. 20 on the season, Tom Vialle gave up the lead in the ensuing corner to Red Bull KTM teammate Rene Hofer. Then in another quick lead change two corners later, new MX2 World Champion Maxime Renaux got to the point on an outside line. Vialle after holeshoting this Moto, ended up in fifth place the first time around, and never sniffed the lead after those opening seconds.
Hofer, just around midway, surrendered second place to Vialle after a small tip-over and lost three more spots in the process. The Austrian would eventually come home in sixth. Winning here would be Renaux, his ninth Moto win of the season. Rounding out the podium would be his teammate Jago Geerts in second, and Vialle rallying to third and the final podium spot.
Moto 2
Vialle picked up holeshot No. 21 in Moto 2, but this time was able to box out Hofer and get out to an early lead. Mattia Guadagnini was right behind to make this a Red Bull KTM one-two-three. Hofer, however, got tangled with Geerts before the end of the first lap to break it up. The Austrian ended up with a 6-9 day which does not tell the whole story. A podium could have been possible if not for outside factors/mistakes.
Later on, Geerts would rail and outside corner to take the lead away from Vialle. His teammate Renaux then followed suit before the end of that lap as well. Geerts was then able to check out on Renaux to pick up his fourth Grand Prix win of the season. While his Championship hopes are gone, his chances to finish second are alive again. After injuries forced him out of Moto 2 last weekend, Geerts only sits back seven points of Vialle entering Wednesday.
Top 10 Overall in MX2 Class
No. 93 Jago Geerts 2-1
No. 959 Maxime Renaux 1-2
No. 28 Tom Vialle 3-4
No. 14 Jed Beaton 5-14
No. 74 Kay De Wolf 8-6
No. 517 Isak Gifting 7-7
No. 711 Rene Hofer 6-9
No. 101 Mattia Guadagnini 12-5
No. 516 Simon Laengenfelder 11-6
No. 11 Mikkel Harrup 14-5
MXGP Class
Moto 1
Jeremy Seewer picked up his third holeshot of the year, but there was a move on the start that had big points implications for a title contender. Gajser got bumped off track in the first corner, then proceeded to blatantly cut the track and re-entered past turn two. This was almost identical to what Alessandro Lupino did in the final Des Nations Moto, nearly costing Team Italy the event. That ended up being a 10 position penalty, Gajser lucked out big time here, only losing five spots.
Another big championship moment was Herlings falling over, then having Seewer fall on top of him with nowhere to go. The Bullet was scored in 15th place on lap one, an absolute disaster given the circumstances. However, if there is one guy in this MXGP field that could make up for an early error with raw speed, Herlings is that rider.
After making it up to fifth, he faced heavy resistance from a new face in the MXGP class, Ruben Fernandez. The Spaniard, who had been running MX2 for the whole year gave Herlings everything he had. But after a four-minute duel, conceded fourth to the KTM rider. Herlings then made it into second by the end, but the one guy he couldn’t afford to win slipped through the cracks early to do so. Febvre ended up taking the lead by the end of lap one and never looked back. Even better for the Frenchman was that Gajser finished eighth here after his penalty.
Moto 2
Jorge Prado picked up holeshot No. 16 on the year but got caught by Herlings after a few corners. Febvre would follow suit a couple of laps later, while Gajser hung around the back half of the Top 5 for the opening half. By the halfway point, Gajser had caught Antonio Cairoli and passed him via a bobble in turn two, then two laps later got by Prado for third.
Herlings all the meanwhile did exactly what he did during Des Nations here a couple of months ago, absolutely checking out from the field by over 10 seconds. He won the Moto and Grand Prix, ensuring at the worst that he would, at worst, not lose any more points to Febvre. With him finishing in second, the three-point gap that was there to start the day would carry over into the final round of the year on Wednesday. Gajser, large in part due to his penalty, now sits 15 points back and needs a miracle to three-peat now.
Top 10 Overall in MXGP Class
No. 84 Jeffery Herlings 2-1
No. 3 Romain Febvre 1-2
No. 222 Antonio Cairoli 3-4
No. 243 Tim Gajser 8-3
No. 91 Jeremy Seewer 5-5
No. 70 Ruben Fernandez 4-7
No. 61 Jorge Prado 6-6
No. 19 Thomas Kjer Olson 7-10
No. 77 Alessandro Lupino 10-9
No. 189 Brian Bogers 12-8
One round to go now. Febvre and Herlings, with Gajser still having an outside shot. For Febvre to win his second MXGP class title, a 1-2 or 2-1 day would be enough. For Herlings meanwhile, a 1-1 day has to be the expectation, as Febvre has by super consistent the last quarter of the season. Without question, this is going to be one of the best title bout conclusions in MXGP history. Who is going to be able to dig deep on short rest?
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Main Image Credit: Embed from Getty Images
