MX2: Vialle Falls, Hands Italian Race One Win to Geerts

The MX2 World Championship was back in action at Faenza for the MXGP of Italy, and after qualifying it was Maxime Renaux who was fastest, and took the first gate pick. 

Tom Vialle’s gate pick was only the eighth, however it was enough for the Frenchman to pick up yet another holeshot, taking the early lead ahead of his championship rival, Jago Geerts.

For half of the moto, it looked as though it was going to be a fairly straightforward victory for Vialle, but a mistake with 10 minutes to go saw him drop behind Geerts and Maxime Renaux, who had been running in third place since the beginning. 

The #959 had spent much of the first half of the race fending off the attentions of his compatriot, Mathys Boisrame, and half-a-lap after Vialle fell, Boisrame stuffed him in the tight left hander before the pit straight. 

Vialle was taking his time to get back into his rhythm, and that almost cost him a further position to his KTM stablemate, Conrad Mewse. The #28, though, was able to defend successfully from the #426 and set back on after Boisrame. 

When Vialle caught Boisrame, chaos ensued. The #172 was clearly desperate to defend his third place from his compatriot, and was extremely aggressive – but fair – in his retort to the KTM rider’s attacks. 

The French civil war over third place also allowed Mewse to close back in on them, and it became a three-way fight for third in the final three minutes plus two laps and the Briton had a strong attempt at taking the spot of top KTM away from his factory stablemate. However, Vialle’s continued offensive against Boisrame simultaneously allowed him to maintain some advantage to Mewse, although ultimately the championship leader was unsuccessful in prizing third away from his countryman. 

Vialle’s earlier crash gifted the win to Geerts who, up to that point, had been unable to match the pace of the #28 KTM. The Belgian maintained a 10-second-plus lead for the majority of the second half of the race, and ended with a lead of 7.292 seconds over his Yamaha stablemate, the relatively anonymous Maxime Renaux who was back inside the top three of a moto for the first time since Valkenswaard.

Further back, Boisrame completed a successful defence against Vialle, who was in turn able to hold off Mewse to make sure there were three Frenchman in the top four of the first moto of the 2020 MXGP of Italy. Mewse’s ride should be commended, nonetheless, as it has been quite the turnaround for the Hitachi KTM fuelled by Milwaukee rider since his tremendous difficulties in the first round in Kegums almost one month ago. 

Jed Beaton completed the top six of this first Italian moto, the Australian finishing 15 seconds adrift of Mewse, and 25 back of the race winner, Geerts. Behind the #14 Husqvarna was Stephen Rubini in seventh place, ahead of Jan Pancar in a season-best eighth, Thomas Kjer Olsen in ninth and Morgan Lesiardo who completed the top 10. 

Richard Sikyna was 11th, ahead of Simon Laengenfelder, Kevin Horgmo, Gianmarco Cenerelli and Mattia Guadagnini, who went down in the first turn and later in the first lap had contact with Ben Watson, all of which heavily compromised the #101’s race. Nathan Crawford was 16th, ahead of Mikkel Haarup, Joakin Furbetta, Petr Polak and Nathan Renkens who completed the top 20. 

A crash early on in the first lap – after the two rollers that precede the second turn – Ben Watson crashed, which is what put him back with Guadagnini after the Italian’s first turn fall. When the two collided later in the first lap, Watson’s brake lever broke, which saw him return to the pits for repairs. That meant the Briton was one lap down when he re-entered the track and he eventually retired. Other notable retirements included Roan van de Moosdijk, who had mechanical problems, Ruben Fernandez who had a contact in the early stages, Alvin Ostlund and Bailey Malkiewicz.