MX2: Vialle stall hands Geerts race two win

The MX2 World Championship moved out of Italy for the first time since August for the MXGP of Spain. Tom Vialle was looking to take his second win of the day after coming out on top in the first moto earlier on. 

Ben Watson took the holeshot from Jago Geerts, although the Belgisn overcame his teammate into the second turn. Tom Vialle started third but took the lead in the fourth turn as the Yamahas gave chase, soon to be joined by Roan van de Moosdijk.

Watson was demoted to fifth as van de Moosdijk and Ruben Fernandez passed him at the start of the first official lap, whilst Maxime Renaux passed the #919 – who he will replace at the Monster Energy Yamaha team next season as Watson ages out of the MX2 class – for fourth later on in the lap.

After taking the lead, Vialle looked certain to win, leading by around four seconds going onto the final lap. However, a stall in the turn before the pit straight saw him drop behind Geerts, an error from which Vialle could not recover. It was a gift of a win for Geerts in the end, but the points count all the same, meaning the Belgian closes in by three points in the championship, his deficit now stands at 52 to Vialle. 

Winning the second race was not enough for Geerts to win the Grand Prix, of course, as that still went to Vialle with a 1-2. 5-1 for Geerts bagged him second overall, though. 

Joining the championship-duelling duo in the top three in the second moto was Roan van de Moosdijk, although that was not enough for the Dutchman to make the podium overall. Instead, the final step of the podium was occupied by Thomas Kjer Olsen who finished race two in seventh, the Dane falling victim to the difficulty of passing around Arroyomolinos after a poor start. 

Ahead of Olsen in the second motor were Ruben Fernandez in fourth – his best ride since moto one in Latvia – who was ahead of Maxime Renaux and Ben Watson. Fourth for Fernandez was not enough to get him inside the top 10 after he retired from the first moto on the first lap, while Renaux 6-5 for fifth overall and Watson’s 9-6 was enough for seventh overall. 

Behind Olsen, Isak Gifting returned to the top 10 of a moto with eighth, the Swede doing enough to complete the top 10 overall. Then came Stephen Rubini, who was ninth overall, and Jed Beaton who completed the top 10 of the moto after a poor start to go 3-10 for sixth overall.

Kevin Horgmo was 11th, ahead of Conrad Mewse, his podium hopes curtailed by a trip to the pits early on in the second race to fix some damage on the front of the bike. The #426 ended the day eighth overall. 

Behind Mewse was his Hitachi KTM fuelled by Milwaukee teammate, Bas Vaessen, in 13th, ahead of Alberto Forato and Bailey Malkiewicz who completed the top 15. In 16th was Alvin Ostlund, ahead of Morgan Lesiardo, Jan Pancar, Michael Sandner and Ashton Dickinson who rounded out the top 20.