The third and final stop at the world-class Trentino circuit in the MXGP season went down on Sunday. After a disastrous run just days ago, Jeffery Herlings saw his points lead collapse to almost nothing. Now Romain Febvre of Monster Energy Kawasaki and Tim Gajser of Honda HRC were all over the Bullet with six Motos to go in the season. As miraculous as it is that Herlings finds himself in this spot despite missing multiple rounds, he cannot afford any more mistakes. Gajser and Febvre have been in this spot before and would pounce all over him if the mistakes continued.
Be sure to follow all of our Motocross coverage. Including Maxime Renaux’s MX2 World Championship clinching effort.
MX2 Class
Moto 1
Despite picking up his 18th holeshot of the season, Tom Vialle almost instantly surrendered the lead to teammate Rene Hofer. Renaux meanwhile was around seventh off the start but was about to catch a break in the points. Sadly that break came at the expense of an injury to his teammate Jago Geerts, who went down hard in a downhill section. Despite clearly being hurt, the Belgian Yamaha rider came from dead last to 13th in an impressive showing.
Ruben Fernandez all the meanwhile finished a charge from sixth to third on lap 10 with a pass over Vialle. With Renaux moving from seventh to second early on, he was trailing Hofer for the entire Moto. Despite making things close at the end, the young Red Bull KTM rider took home the opening MX2 race on the day.
Moto 2
The big news in Moto 2 was that Geerts pulled out of the race after just one lap. By default, Renaux had already won the MX2 Championship, earning enough points in Moto 1 to wrap things up. With the title secured, Renaux could now let loose and go for a win as a cherry on top. His main obstacle here would be Vialle after the now former champion Tom Vialle picked up holeshot No. 19 on the year.
In a surprising move, Vialle gave up the lead pretty easily to Renaux on lap five and that was all he needed to do here. Renaux picked up the Moto win, Grand Prix win, and MX2 World Championship all at once. It’s a shame for Hofer who let one slip away with an eight in this Moto, but fourth overall for him is far from a catastrophe. Vialle ended up second on the podium, with Fernandez third.
Top 10 Overall in MX2 Class
No. 959 Maxime Renaux 2-1
No. 28 Tom Vialle 4-2
No. 70 Ruben Fernandez 3-3
No. 711 Rene Hofer 1-8
No. 20 Wilson Todd 7-4
No. 198 Thibault Benistant 6-7
No. 74 Kay De Wolf 8-6
No. 11 Mikkel Harrup 14-5
No. 14 Jed Beaton 5-14
No. 80 Andrea Adamo 10-10
MXGP Class
Moto 1
A pleasant surprise up at the front of this Moto, with Jeremy Seewer picking up his second holeshot of the year. Behind him were a number of other guys out of the title hunt, including Glenn Coldenhoff, Jorge Prado, and Antonio Cairoli. As things progressed, those latter three would shuffle out of the top four as the three title combatants, Herlings, Febvre, and Gasjer took their spots. As that was happening, however, the three were in a highly competitive battle in the opening minutes.
Both Febvre and Seewer both had rather notable get-offs in this moto, but miraculously neither lost their spots at the time, second and first respectively. After his fall, Seewer picked up his first Moto win of the year in the middle of the tightest championship bouts in some time. Not a bad day so far for the pride of Switzerland. Febvre still came home in second, Herlings third, Gajser the last of the contenders in fourth.
Moto 2
Prado took home holeshot No. 15 of the year in the final race in Trentino. Cairoli tucked in behind in second place and stayed there for a bit. That was until Gajser split the Red Bull KTM duo before taking the lead from the Spaniard on lap one. Of the two other title contenders, Herlings would be a story in this Moto, but not for the reasons that he would like. Not once but twice did the Bullet hit the ground. The second of which, Herlings lucked out and avoided any sort of major injury (as far as we know), truly a violent wreck.
Falling to ninth after the second crash, Herlings turned into Superman for all intents and purposes. From lap 12 to the finish, Herlings clawed his way from ninth to fourth in an otherworldly ride. His efforts would however not allow him to keep the red plate leaving Trentino however.
Although he would have a 2-3 day, Febvre jumped into the points lead by one over Gajser who wound up second overall with a 4-1. Herlings, meanwhile, falls from first to third but trails Febvre by just three points. Amidst all this bedlam and pandemonium, Seewer out of nowhere rattled off his best day of the year, a 1-2 for his second career Grand Prix win in the class. A big shoutout as well to Canadian Motocross Champion Dylan Wright on a 9-10 day.
Top 10 Overall in MXGP Class
No. 91 Jeremy Seewer 1-2
No. 243 Tim Gajser 4-1
No. 3 Romain Febvre 2-3
No. 84 Jeffery Herlings 3-4
No. 222 Antonio Cairoli 5-5
No. 61 Jorge Prado 7-6
No. 259 Glenn Coldenhoff 6-8
No. 919 Ben Watson 10-7
No. 109 Dylan Wright 9-10
No. 77 Alessandro Lupino 8-13
Two rounds, three riders, four motos are all that remain in this MXGP season. A good omen for Gajser perhaps? that remains to be seen, but this will be one of the most highly contested title fights in FIM Motocross history for certain.
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Main Image Credit: Embed from Getty Images
