MX2: Vialle Back to Winning Ways in First MXGP of Kegums Race

The first MX2 race at the MXGP of Kegums took place in conditions akin to those of the MXGP of Latvia one week ago, with the late morning sun lighting the refreshed Kegums layout for this third round of MXGP in seven days. 

Tom Vialle made it to the first corner in the lead, but Ben Watson had the better run through it and grabbed the holeshot award. The lead did not belong to the Briton for long, though, as he was passed by Vialle and Maxime Renaux before the second corner. 

Further back, Jago Geerts started in the middle of the pack, and had work to do if he was to take the challenge to his main championship rival, Vialle. 

The F&H Kawasaki riders had all made good starts, too, and they populated much of the top 10 early on as they had in the previous two rounds in Kegums. However, Mathys Boisrame stalled the bike whilst fighting with his teammate, Roan van de Moosdijk, and dropped outside the top 20 as a result. Then, Mikkel Haarup went down in the hollow between the step-down and the wall jump. That meant van de Moosdijk was the main representative for the Kawasaki team for the rest of the race.

The stall for Boisrame also meant that only van de Moosdijk and the Belgian’s teammate, Watson, stood between the #193 and Vialle. It took Geerts just one lap to pass the Dutchman, and two laps after that Watson also fell victim to the winner of the MXGP of Riga on Wednesday. 

After Watson had been dealt with, Geerts set after Vialle, who had built up a strong margin in the opening laps. But Geerts’ speed was faster than that of his rival, and with two laps to go the Yamaha rider was close to being within range to make an attack on the #28 KTM of Vialle. 

Entering the final lap, it looked like Geerts would be able to challenge the championship leader, but whilst lapping Jere Haavisto, Geerts made contact with the backmarker over the wall jump, went down and lost 20 seconds. It was the end of Geerts victory challenge, but fortunately for him he was able to hold onto second place. 

On the time sheets, then, it looks like a dominant victory for Vialle, who won by 24 seconds. However, that does not tell the full story and, whilst the Frenchman was able to extend his championship lead back out to 11 points heading into this afternoon’s second moto, he knows he will have to deal with Geerts, who was able to lap over one second faster than him at times in the first race. 

Ben Watson was able to hang on to what was a fairly lonely third place, his best moto result of the season. The Briton is now right in the mix for his first overall podium of 2020 heading into the second moto. 

Roan van de Moosdijk also had a pretty lonely ride to fourth place, 20 seconds back from Watson, whilst Conrad Mewse had by far his best race since the series arrived in Latvia, as he rounded out the top five on his #426 KTM. 

After starting second, a crash for Maxime Renaux dropped him down the order, but the #959 was able to recover to sixth, finishing ahead of Alberto Forato, Alvin Ostlund, Nathan Crawford – finally making it to the end of the moto in the position his speed warrants – and Ruben Fernandez who recovered to 10th after two crashes. 

Jed Beaton went down on the first lap yet again, but recovered to 11th by the finish. The Australian finished ahead of Stephen Rubini, Simon Laegenfelder, Josh Gilbert and Mathys Boisrame, who finished 15th after the aforementioned stall and a crash later on in the moto. 

Bailey Malkiewicz took 16th place, ahead of Jan Pancar, Hardi Roosiorg, Jere Haavisto and Jakub Teresak.