MX2: Geerts Takes Race Two Victory, Vialle Takes Overall Win

Race two for the MX2 World Championship took a much different shape to the first race, as the championship contenders met on track. 

Tom Vialle led the early stages of the race, but unlike in the first moto, the pressure from Jago Geerts behind never alleviated. Eventually, Geerts was able to find a way through on the #28 Red Bull KTM. The Belgian was unable to break away from his rival, though, and, despite a mistake where he ran off-track in the final minutes of the race, Vialle was able to get inside Geerts as they entered the final lap. 

Initially, Vialle was able to get away, but at the end of the main straight, with the wall jump and the Monster Energy tabletop, Geerts was able to cut back underneath the Frenchman. From there, the #193 was able to pull away. 

The 4.270-second gap for Geerts at the line does not tell the story of the race, which was much more tightly contested, but it was an important win for Geerts with respect to the championship and the psychology of that points battle between himself and Vialle. 

The victory was not enough for Geerts to climb onto the overall podium, however, in fact the 16th place in the first race meant the Belgian finished only sixth in the GP. 

The overall win instead went to Vialle, who went 2-1 for his second consecutive Grand Prix victory, the third of his career, as he comes out of this Latvian Grand Prix with a 22-point lead atop the championship. 

Third in the race and third in the overall was Mathys Boisrame. The Frenchman put in some solid laps towards the end of the race to close on the two leaders, but was unable to really make an impact on the lead battle. Nonetheless, Boisrame’s second MX2 podium and his first of 2020. 

Roan van de Moosdijk’s fourth place in the second race was enough for the Dutchman to seal second in the overall, the #39’s first podium of the season. With Boisrame also making the rostrum it means that the F&H Kawasaki team have had all three of their riders on the podium at some point in the opening three rounds, showing they have what it takes to challenge the likes of the factory Yamaha and KTM teams. 

Fifth over the line in the second MX2 moto was Ben Watson, the Briton also doing enough for fifth overall with this result. The #919 had a better start than in the first race but was nonetheless unable to challenge the leaders, which no doubt he will hope to change mid-week when the World Championship races in Kegums once more. 

Jed Beaton responded well to his disappointing first moto, taking sixth in the second race. As for Geerts, Beaton’s overall result suffered courtesy of that poor first race result, but it was nonetheless a strong ride from the #14 who finished ninth overall. 

After surprising everyone in the first moto with his third-place finish, Ruben Fernandez was in the frame for an overall podium going into the second race. Once again, the Spaniard was fast from the start, but equally sketchy. He paid the price in the second moto for the all-action riding, getting sideways over a single and landing into a braking bump. Fortunately the #70 was okay to continue, and finished a strong seventh regardless of the crash. It was a strong showing of determination by Fernandez, who unfortunately missed out on the podium, but certainly made his mark on this weekend’s GP and finished fourth overall, four points behind Boisrame. 

Another rider who significantly improved in the second moto was Nathan Crawford. The Australian was only 14th in the first race, but took eighth in the second to finish 12th overall. The top 10 in the second moto was rounded out by the injured Thomas Kjer Olsen and Maxime Renaux, who was unable to repeat the same kind of defensive performance of the first race and finished 10th.

Alberto Forato’s race went similarly to the first moto. In the morning, Forato lucked into a top 10 courtesy of Geerts’ crashes, but in the second race he was not so fortunate, and finished a fairly distant 11th, seven seconds behind Renaux. Next came Bas Vaessen in 12th and Alvin Ostlund in 13th, the Swede not able to repeat the top 10 performance of the first race. 

Cyril Genot took 14th place, ahead of Richard Sikyna who completed the top 16. Stephen Rubini was 16th ahead of Petr Polak, Josh Gilbert, Hardi Roosiorg and Jan Pancar who completed the top 20 one lap down. 

Simon Laegenfelder was 21st on the sole GASGAS (Jeremy Sydow missed this round for injury), ahead of Ashton Dickinson, Jakub Teresak, Matias Vesterinen and Mikkel Haarup who finished 25th after an early crash. 26th went to Bailey Malkiewicz, and the Australian was the last finisher one lap down.

Rene Hofer and Nathan Renkens both went out on the first lap. For Hofer this was particularly disappointing, as he could have fought for the overall podium, especially considering the difficult second race of Fernandez. Enzo Toriani then retired on lap three, before Johannes Nermann and Jere Haavisto both dropped out on lap eight. Joakin Furbetta was the next rider to retire on lap 10, and Morgan Lesiardo was the final retirement on lap 14.