MX2: Beaton takes first race win as Olsen seals overall victory

After the first MX2 moto of the day in Mantova for the MXGP of Lombardia, Tom Vialle was the favourite to take the overall win heading into the second moto after a dominant display in the first outing. 

Ben Watson made the holeshot ahead of Conrad Mewse, whilst Vialle had a difficult time straight out of the gate – a rarity for the #28.

In fact, it was a poor start for everyone in the top four of the first race, with Vialle, Maxime Renaux and Thomas Kjer Olsen in seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively, at the end of the first race, whilst Roan van de Moosdijk was 12th at the end of the first lap. 

On lap three, Jed Beaton was able to take the lead from Watson, having already passed Mewse on the previous lap. From there, the #14 didn’t look back and despite never extending his advantage over Watson to much more than one second, he was pretty much faultless on the way to his first MX2 race win. It was not enough for the overall win for the #14, but he took his second overall podium in two Grands Prix. 

Ben Watson took second in what was his best moto of the season. He will perhaps be frustrated that he was unable to take the race win from Beaton, but second place was good enough for the #919’s first overall podium of the season as he took third overall. 

Conrad Mewse’s race was pretty quiet. After he had been cleared by Beaton he did not really see another rider for the whole race and crossed the finish in a solid third place for eighth overall after his 18th in race one. 

Thomas Kjer Olsen was able to recover after his poor start to finish fourth with a strong late charge in the final five or six minutes. The Dane’s arrival in fourth place was enough to give him his first GP overall since Matterley Basin 2019 and the aggression and speed shown by the #19 makes you wonder what the championship might have looked like had he been fit from the start.

Olsen’s late charge cost Maxime Renaux an overall podium. The Frenchman finished fifth in the second race, which was only good enough for fourth overall. Behind the #959 was Roan van de Moosdijk who took sixth place for fifth overall; whilst Alvin Ostlund took seventh (13th O/A). 

Jago Geerts crashed twice. The first time was from third place, the second from fourth place after a recovery from eighth. Despite this messy race from the Belgian, he was able to cut the gap in the championship by six points to Tom Vialle, although the #193 lost nine points in the GP as a whole. Behind the Belgian, Stephen Rubini and Isak Gifting completed the top 10, finishing seventh and 10th in the overall, respectively. 

Alberto Forato was 11th in the second race, which was not enough to get him into the top 10 overall. The Italian was ahead of Mikkel Haarup and Kevin Horgmo, whilst Tom Vialle’s race fell apart at around half distance, and he fell to 14th by the end of the race. It was quite the polarisation compared to his first race domination, but it adds weight to the theory that the #28 suffers in traffic. Still, as previously mentioned, Vialle’s points lead went out by nine points in this GP, and that will be his main focus at this point. 

Rounding out the top 15 was Bas Vaessen, whose first race back from injury in moto one was interrupted by an early trip to pit lane. There was no such interruption in the second race, and he ended up only four seconds back of Vialle. Behind the Belgian was Nathan Crawford, who picked up his first points of the day in 16th, ahead of Josh Gilbert, Cyril Genot, Nathan Renkens and Fillippo Zonta who completed the top 20.