MX2: Vialle Dominates Opening Latvian Race as Geerts Crashes Twice

The Motocross World Championship got back underway in Latvia, with the MX2 riders being the first GP riders to get behind the gate in Kegums. 

The race was straightforward for Tom Vialle, who was dominant in taking his third moto win of 2020. There was pressure early on from Vialle’s primary championship rival, Jago Geerts, but a mistake from the Belgian whilst chasing the #28 Red Bull KTM let the Frenchman off the hook. The gap in the end for Vialle was almost seven seconds back to second place, as the other riders struggled more with the hard, dry surface. 

Roan van de Moosdijk was second for F&H Racing Kawasaki. He inherited that position after Geerts crashed, and by the end had created a cushion of almost seven seconds back to Ruben Fernandez, who was perhaps the most impressive rider of this first moto, finishing third on his privateer Yamaha.

The race was not without incident, though, for the Spaniard, who crashed once early on, and had several other sketchy moments. But the #70’s speed remained throughout, and was irresistible for most of the field, in spite of the mistakes, and Fernandez is in the window for an overall podium in view of the second moto later on. 

Mathys Boisrame took fourth place, in a fairly quiet ride for the Frenchman. He ended the race 19 seconds adrift of Vialle, but also a fairly comfortable 2.755-second gap back to Rene Hofer, who seemed to be about that far behind the #172 for the whole race on his way to fifth place. 

The top six was rounded out by Ben Watson after a strong late charge from the Briton who paid for a poor start. In the end, though, he was well clear of seventh-placed Maxime Renaux. 

The battle for seventh, out of which Renaux arrived on top, was the big fight in the closing stages. Whilst things were fairly settled up ahead, Renaux’s speed was fading towards the end, and was coming under pressure from Alvin Ostlund’s Honda. Ostlund was able to temporarily get past, but Renaux was able to respond almost immediately with better speed through the waves. Ostlund’s inability to re-pass the #959 meant Mikkel Haarup and alberto Forato were able to close in from behind to make it a four-way fight. In the end, Renaux was able to hold onto seventh, and Haarup was not able to make too much of an impression on Ostlund who took eighth. Similarly, the Finn was able to keep Forato behind at a safe distance and took ninth, whilst the Italian was 10th at the flag.

Thomas Kjer Olsen took 11th place having started quite well. The Norwegian suffered from half-distance thanks to a shoulder injury he picked up recently. Having also started the season injured, it looks as if his championship challenge could be failing already. Behind the #19 was Cyril Genot, the top Belgian, Bas Vaessen, Nathan Crawford who made progress to reach inside the top 15 by the end of the race, and Jed Beaton who followed a similar path to his compatriot having gone down at the start to complete the aforementioned top 15. 

Jago Geerts suffered a second crash that cost him his goggles after the initial fall that cost him a shot at the win. It was a shame that Geerts took the initial fall, as it looked as though there could be a great battle for the win between him and Vialle, the two main championship combatants. But the bigger problem for Geerts is of course the ground he has lost to Vialle in the points, and it now feels like a victory is almost necessary for the Belgian in the second moto having also lost out to Vialle in Valkenswaard, also, and the #193 is now 25 points behind his rival.

Stephen Rubini took 17th, ahead of Hardi Roosiorg, Richard Sikyna and Josh Gilbert who completed the top 20.

Bailey Malkiewicz was 21st, the Australian finishing eight seconds outside of the top 20, four seconds ahead of Morgan Lesiardo in 22nd. Jakub Teresak was 23rd , ahead of Jan Pancar in 24th and Enzo Toriani in 25th. 

Matias Vesterinen was the first rider to finish one lap down, in 26th place, ahead of Petr Polak. 

Ashton Dickinson was the first retirement, the Australian not making it to the end of the first lap. Johannes Nermann, on the other hand, suffered a pretty big crash on lap four that ended his race prematurely and Jere Haavisto suffered a similar fate just a couple of laps later. Nathan Renkens, Joakin Fubetta and Simon Laegenfelder also all dropped out before 10 laps had been completed. Conrad Mewse, on the other hand, did make it to lap 10, but retired the #426 Hitachi KTM fuelled by Milwaukee on lap 11. 

Kevin Horgmo did not start the race.