MX2: Dominant Vialle Wins Race Two for Second GP Victory on the Spin

Round eight of the 2020 MX2 World Championship, the MXGP of Emilia Romagna, took place in Faenza, the third and final round at the Monte Coralli circuit. For the second moto, the pressure was on Tom Vialle, who needed to respond to the victory of Jago Geerts in the first race as the championship battle continued.

Tom Vialle made the holeshot yet again, his second of the day, ahead of the factory Yamahas of Ben Watson and Geerts. In fact, it was a slow start for Geerts, who lost a spot to Jed Beaton at the end of the uphill waves section before they reached the finish jump for the first time. 

Geerts was then under pressure from Roan van de Moosdijk for fourth place, as Vialle was escaping at the front – the #28’s gap at the end of the first official lap stood at 2.1 seconds over Watson. 

However, just because the number on the front of the factory Yamaha behind him and the rider aboard it was different, that did not mean that Vialle’s race would be any easier. Watson was able to keep the factory KTM well in his sights, and the gap floated around 2 seconds in the first 10 minutes, as Geerts was closing back in on Beaton, who in turn was coming back to Watson.

A crash for Watson with 20 minutes left on the clock, though, saw him slip back to fourth, then fifth as van de Moosdijk took advantage. That left Vialle at the front with a gap of around four seconds over Beaton, who was coming under increasing pressure from Geerts.

Geerts was finally able to clear Beaton with 12 minutes to go, but the gap stood at over seven seconds, so the Belgian had a lot of work to do in the final third of the moto. 

Ultimately, it proved too much, and Geerts was unable to make a significant impact on Vialle, who in the end cruised to a relatively comfortable seven-second win in this second moto, going 2-1 for the overall win. That is Vialle’s second successive Grand Prix victory and his fourth of the season. 

The result also cancelled the points gain of Geerts from the first moto, meaning the championship leaders leave Faenza separated by 21 points, in favour of Vialle. 

Jed Beaton was able to secure third place in the race to take third overall. Finally, the Australian has had two clean motos and put good starts with them. The result of that has been his first podium since Portugal, 2018, and this should be a good base on which to build for the #14 ahead of Mantova in two weeks. 

Roan van de Moosdijk took his best finish since the paddock arrived in Faenza, with a fifth overall courtesy of a 6-4 scorecard. His second race was quite quiet, he benefited from the crash of Watson and was able to hold off the #919 for the rest of the race. 

Watson took fifth place. The crash was frustrating for the Briton, as he made the start and was running well in the first part of the race, something he hadn’t done in Faenza before today. But, nonetheless, there are positives for him to take to Mantova, although sixth overall with a 7-5 is perhaps not one of them. 

Sixth place in the second moto was enough for Thomas Kjer Olsen to secure fourth in the overall. He lost out on the podium to his teammate, but the last two GPs have shown that the #19 is back. 

Behind Olsen in the second race was Ruben Fernandez, who went 9-7 for seventh overall. The Spaniard finished nine seconds ahead of Stephen Rubini who went 8-8 for eighth, the Frenchman in turn finishing five seconds ahead of his compatriot, Maxime Renaux, who had bike problems towards the end of the race but was able to finish ninth, going 10-9 for ninth overall. Completing the top 10 of the second moto was Kevin Horgmo, although his non-scoring ride in the first race meant this was not enough for more than 16th in the GP overall. 

Josh Gilbert took 11th place in the second moto, he finished ahead of Morgan Lesiardo, Jan Pancar, Nathan Crawford and Alvin Ostlund who completed the top 15, whilst Conrad Mewse was 16th which was enough for him to complete the top 10 in the overall. Behind Mewse, Nathan Renkens was 17th, whilst Enzo Toriani, Max Spies and Cyril Genot completed the top 20.