MX2: Olsen takes his first race win of 2020 as Geerts falls again

The second Mantova round of the 2020 MX2 World Championship season played host to the MXGP of Citta di Mantova. Tom Vialle maintained the red plate coming into this Grand Prix, despite his struggles in the second moto on Sunday, but it was Roan van de Moosdijk who qualified fastest for round nine of the season. 

Isak Gifting took the holeshot ahead of Mikkel Haarup, an impressive feat from the fill-in rider at Diga Procross GASGAS, up from EMX250. 

Jago Geerts also made a good start, and came up to second place halfway round the first lap. He was then promoted to the lead when Gifting lost the front into one of the switchbacks towards the end of the lap. 

Geerts then gave up the lead himself, though, falling in a rut, also in the switchback section, and fell back to seventh place. 

It was yet another mistake from Geerts when he looked good to be taking points out of Tom Vialle’s championship lead, which coming into this race was 30 points. The Frenchman was running third whilst Geerts was leading, this of course then became second as Maxime Renaux took the lead. 

However, it was not as simple as an easy 20-minute ride to second place for Vialle, as almost immediately after he took second place, he was under pressure from Thomas Kjer Olsen. 

Olsen’s pressure pushed Vialle into Renaux, but the #28 could not find a way passed his compatriot before he ran out of tear-offs and began to face visibility issues. The Husqvarna rider was then able to pass the championship leader and take the fight to the #959 Yamaha of Renaux. 

The winner of the MXGP of Italy earlier in the year was able to resist Olsen until the final lap, when the Dane was able to get a better run through turn five and then close the line on Renaux before the two rollers. From there, Olsen was unchallenged thanks to a heater of a final lap that saw him cross the finish jump 1.4 seconds clear of Renaux. It was Olsen’s first moto win of the season, and the second for Husqvarna in two motos. 

Renaux could feel aggrieved to have lost a race he led for 20 minutes plus one lap, but the reality is his ride was strong, just Olsen’s good feeling in Mantova and the aggression that came with that was hard to resist. The form Renaux has shown since the championship arrived in Italy back in the beginning of September has been impressive, and he is still in with a shout of a second career Grand Prix win in the second moto. 

Tom Vialle hung on for third place despite his visibility issues. He was able to bounce back from his difficult race in the second outing in the MXGP of Lombardia at the weekend, and push his championship lead back out thanks to the difficulties for Geerts. 

Ben Watson put in a strong late charge to be only just over one second behind Vialle at the end, and 4.5 seconds off the win. There was some seriously strong late race pace from the #919, who at times was one or two seconds faster than the leading three. All he missed was the start. 

Roan van de Moosdijk started to fade towards the end of the race, being passed by both factory Yamaha riders within the space of a lap. Geerts crashed for a second time in the race not long after he passed the #39, and that promoted him back up into fifth place, where he finished 11.4 seconds off the win. More strong points for the Dutchman, although his lack of speed in the closing stages of the race will be of some concern. 

Jed Beaton took a distant sixth place, which might not be a terrible thing for the Australian considering that he won the GP last Sunday after a sixth in moto one. Behind him was Conrad Mewse, and then Geerts who finished in eighth after another opportunity to close in on the championship leader was squandered. It will be important for the Belgian to have a strong ride in the second race – at the very least he has to beat Vialle in moto two. 

Behind Geerts, Ruben Fernandez finished ninth after a crash, and Isak Gifting took his third 10th place finish out of three races in Mantova so far. It would appear the Swede has an affinity with rounding out the top 10. 

Alberto Forato was 11th over the finish jump for the final time, ahead of Nathan Renkens, Kevin Horgmo, Stephen Rubini and Mathys Boisrame who is clearly struggling much more in this GP than at the weekend with his physical condition. The #172 completed the top 15. 

Behind Boisrame was Bas Vaessen, ahead of Michael Sandner in his continued role as a fill-in at GASGAS; whilst Cyril Genot, Bailey Malkiewicz and Morgan Lesiardo completed the top 20.