MXGP Race Report From Germany

By Stephen St. Pierre

Photos Courtesy of MXGP

Germany was the host country for Round 7 of the FIM Motocross World Championships and the old school, technical, clay track, in the hills of Teutschenthal, played a big role in the rebirth of eight-time World Champion, Red Bull KTM’s Antonio Cairoli. Cairoli had a perfect weekend winning the qualifying race on Saturday then taking the Fox Holeshot in both motos on route to posting 1-1 finishes and claiming his first overall win in a year. The likeable Italian started the season injured, which limited his ability to train and it showed in the first six races. He could run up front with the leaders but would always fall back by the end of the moto. Each weekend he showed a little improvement in his physical endurance, and with a sweep this weekend, his fourth victory at this circuit, gave notice that he is again a contender for the title. “I’ve been searching for this win for some time now,” he said, “I’ve been missing some speed but I started to feel good already in Latvia. Now I hope to be here on the podium and fighting for the win every weekend.”

Honda Gariboldi’s Tim Gajser is probably the most exciting rider to watch on the track. The 19-year-old Slovenian is on the edge at all times. He is strong and confident and wide open on the throttle right to the checkered flag in every moto. In the first moto, he threw everything he had at Tony Cairoli, but couldn’t make a pass stick, and in race two he bounced back to fourth after clipping fellow Honda rider Evegeny Bobryshev while battling for second. His results for the day, 2-4, were enough for second overall, his seventh consecutive podium and more importantly the reigning MX2 World Champion is leaving Germany with the red plate on his Honda.

Team Honda’s Evegeny Bobryshev, riding with an injured shoulder, grabbed the last spot on the podium with 8-2 moto finishes for third overall this weekend. The Russian said, “I had no time on the bike during the week because of my shoulder. The track was really tough today with all of the ruts and the square edge bumps so to be third on the podium, I am really pumped because if you knew what I have and the pain I was riding through; man it’s just really amazing.”

German fans were out in full force and cheering loudly for their hometown hero, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Max Nagl, who charged to third place in the first moto and sixth in moto two after he crashed while in third. The German actually tied with Bobryshev for third overall with 35 points but the tiebreaker goes to the person who places best in the second moto and that was Bobryshev, who finished second.

Monster Energy Yamaha’s Jeremy Van Horebeek and Romain Febvre had a discussion on the start line before the first moto regarding gate pick. Coincidently or not, Van Horebeek and Febvre came together on the opening lap of that moto and Febvre went down hard. Febvre, the reigning MXGP Champ and current red plate holder, struggled to come back in that race and only finished tenth. In moto two, he put in a solid ride for third, which left him in fifth overall, but unfortunately did not score enough points to hang on to the red plate.

MXGP Overall Top Ten: 1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 50 points; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 40 p.; 3. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 35 p.; 4. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HUS), 35 p.; 5. Romain Febvre (FRA, YAM), 31 p.; 6. Ben Townley (NZL, SUZ), 28 p.; 7. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, SUZ), 27 p.; 8. Christophe Charlier (FRA, HUS), 26 p.; 9. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), 25 p.; 10. Valentin Guillod (SUI, YAM), 23 p.

MXGP Championship Top Ten: 1. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 299 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, YAM), 291 p.; 3. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 263 p.; 4. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HUS), 238 p.; 5. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 232 p.; 6. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 215 p.; 7. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, SUZ), 169 p.; 8. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), 168 p.; 9. Valentin Guillod (SUI, YAM), 139 p.; 10. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), 136 p.

In the MX2 class, Red Bull KTM’s Jeffrey Herlings continued his perfect season winning both motos and the overall, but for the first time this year “The Bullet” had his work cut out for him. Herlings battled the flu and a very fast Jeremy Seewer, passing the Suzuki pilot on the second to last lap of Moto 2 to claim his 54th GP victory.

Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Dylan Ferrandis, who has missed most of the season after suffering an injury in Round 2, looked very good in only his second race back. He landed on the second step of the podium after finishing the day 2-3 for the second time this year and tributes his good results to his awesome starts where he took the Fox Holeshot in race one and missed it by a hair in race two. “I’m surprised because I didn’t ride so much during the week because I was really tired and I had a bit of pain in my shoulder, but I am happy to be back on the podium.”

Ferrandis will be coming to the States in 2017 and will race the Lites class after recently signing a two-year deal with Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha to race supercross.

Team Suzuki’s Jeremy Seewer kept his podium streak alive after another impressive performance this weekend. Seewer, who has positioned himself as the best of the rest, rode like a man possessed all weekend. The Swiss rider was fastest in Free Practice and Timed Practice on Saturday and finished second in Qualifying. He crashed in the first moto and came from around twentieth all the way to fourth, but the real head turner was when he put the challenge to Herlings and almost won the final moto. The Suzuki star finished 4-2 for third overall.

Rounding out the top 5 were Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Max Anstie who was third in Moto 1 and led for the better part of Moto 2 before he crashed and threw away his four second lead with six minutes to go. It’s safe to say the Brit will be frustrated, but at least he salvaged fifth in that race which was enough for fourth overall, while Kemea Yamaha’s Benoit Paturel put in two solid races going 7-4 for fifth overall.

MX2 Overall Top Ten: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 50 points; 2. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA, KAW), 42 p.; 3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), 40 p.; 4. Max Anstie (GBR, HUS), 36 p.; 5. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 32 p.; 6. Brent Van doninck (BEL, YAM), 27 p.; 7. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, KAW), 25 p.; 8. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 25 p.; 9. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), 23 p.; 10. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, YAM), 23 p.

MX2 Championship Top Ten: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 350 points; 2. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), 270 p.; 3. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 218 p.; 4. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, YAM), 186 p.; 5. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 186 p.; 6. Petar Petrov (BUL, KAW), 183 p.; 7. Max Anstie (GBR, HUS), 162 p.; 8. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, KAW), 157 p.; 9. Samuele Bernardini (ITA, TM), 149 p.; 10. Brent Van doninck (BEL, YAM), 129 p.

Round 8 – The MXGP of Trentino, Italy will take place next weekend May 14th. All races can been seen live on MXGP-TV.com