MXGP: Prado dominates Arroyomolinos race 2 to take Spanish GP win

The MXGP World Championship moved out of Italy for the first time since August for the MXGP of Spain. Jorge Prado was looking to take the overall win in his home Grand Prix after dominating the first race of the day. 

It was Prado who took the holeshot and led the early stages, with Tim Gajser working hard in the opening corners to get up into second in the hopes of challenging the #61. 

It turned into another dominant display from the two-time MX2 World Champion, as Prado’s pace from the off was relentless, pulling away from Gajser at will, as the #243 in turn edged away from Romain Febvre. 

In the end, Prado’s gap was 4.4 seconds, but he lost three by backing off on the final lap. It was the Spaniard’s first double race win since China last year in the MX2 class, his second Grand Prix win in the MXGP class and 33rd overall. The Spaniard now sits fourth in the World Championship, 50 points down on Gajser. 

Although Gajser was four seconds back, he took second overall with a 3-2 and extended his championship lead to 24 points, almost a full race. Whilst Prado was the star of the day, it should not go unnoticed the importance today has had for Tim Gajser’s championship challenge. 

Second for Gajser in the second race cost Febvre second overall, as he mirrored Gajser’s scoresheet to go 2-3, losing out for the second moto result. It was a strong day for the Frenchman, as together with Gajser and Prado he was a step above the rest of the field. 

The ‘rest of the field’ was headed by Glenn Coldenhoff, the Dutchman taking fourth place to go 5-4 on the day for fourth overall, finishing the second moto ahead of Jeremy Seewer who went 10-5 for seventh overall. 

Antonio Cairoli had a lonely ride to sixth, missing the speed of those in front but with more than Clement Desalle behind. Cairoli went 7-6 for sixth overall and now has 24 points to make up on Gajser, whilst Desalle’s 4-7 was enough for fifth overall. 

Brian Bogers went 8-8 for eighth overall, finishing the second moto ahead of Jeremy van Horebeek who went 9-9 for 10th overall. Gautier Paulin was 10th in the second race, which got him ninth overall after his sixth in race one. 

Henry Jacobi finished race two in 11th, ahead of Ivo Monticelli, Jordi TIxier, Calvin Vlaanderen and Adam Sterry who completed the top 15. In 16th was Valentin Guillod, ahead of Petar Petrov, Jose Butron, Ander Valentin and Artem Guryev who rounded out the top 20.