MX2: Vialle wins Mantova race two as Olsen takes second straight overall victory

The second Mantova round of the 2020 MX2 World Championship season played host to the MXGP of Citta di Mantova. In the second moto, Tom Vialle had the championship momentum after beating Jago Geerts in the first race, although it was Thomas Kjer Olsen who was leading the GP coming into the second race. 

After two off-colour starts – in the second moto on Sunday and the first moto today – Tom Vialle returned to form and took the holeshot and early lead. In comparison, Jago Geerts had work to do after his start, but was able to climb up to sixth by the time they reached the finish jump for the first time.

It took him a while, but eventually Geerts was able to clear the Kawasaki of Roan van de Moosdijk and the Husqvarna of Thomas Kjer Olsen. The Dane was able to follow Geerts, though, as the Belgian closed in on the #14 Husqvarna of Jed Beaton. After a few laps following the Australian, Geerts was able to pass in the switchbacks and, as Beaton tried to respond, the #14 made a mistake and allowed Olsen through as well. 

For Olsen, staying with Geerts was important because, with Vialle out front and himself in third, the Dane would be on equal points with the Red Bull KTM rider and so Vialle would win courtesy of a better second race result. 

Olsen, though, was not able to match the pace of Geerts, who cleared off and caught Vialle on his own as the clock ticked to zero. The #193 was keen to pass his championship rival as soon as possible, and shaped to the inside at the first turn, but Vialle closed the door and Geerts went down as a result of making contact with the rear wheel of the KTM. It is hard to blame Vialle for the crash – he closed the line but Geerts was never really alongside, hence the rear wheel contact. Equally, Geerts’ ambition is understandable, as Mantova had proven a difficult place to pass at and, having closed the gap from three seconds to nothing in one lap, the element of surprise was the Yamaha rider’s best weapon. 

The crash cost Geerts 20 seconds, and dropped him to fifth, whilst Vialle was mostly unaffected and took the win ahead of Olsen who won the overall with a 1-2 scorecard, the Dane becoming the only repeat winner other than Geerts and Vialle of the season, and the only repeat winner in Mantova – ever – other than Antonio Cairoli. 

For the championship, this has had some more negative implications for Geerts, whose adventure into the hard Italian sand has not been a fruitful one so far, as his deficit now reads 46 points with one round in Mantova left to go. 

Behind Vialle and Olsen was Roan van de Moosdijk, whose 5-3 was enough to knock Geerts of the podium and the Dutchman claimed the third step for himself. 

Conrad Mewse had an impressive ride to fourth, which he is becoming quite regularly capable of. It will be interesting to see if the #426 can take the step to fight for the top three, and fight for the top six more consistently, as the season continues to progress. 

As aforementioned, Geerts dropped to fifth after the crash with Vialle, and he did not lose or gain anything from there, ending 22 seconds off the moto win and completing the top five in the race for seventh overall. 

Jed Beaton took sixth place for Husqvarna, going 6-6 for sixth overall. The Australian was ahead of Bailey Malkiewicz and Isak Gifting who finally finished somewhere other than 10th. The Swede went 10-8 for eighth overall, and finished the second moto ahead of Maxime Renaux after a poor start for the Frenchman, who went 2-9 for fourth overall. Mathys Boisrame completed the top 10 in the second moto, although that was only enough for 12th overall. 

The overall top 10 was completed by Ruben Fernandez, who finished the second moto in 11th, ahead of Nathan Renkens, Bas Vaessen, Alvin Ostlund and Ben Watson who completed the top 15 after going down in the first turn – the Briton taking ninth overall. 

Nermann Johannes took 16th in moto two, ahead of Jan Pancar, Enzo Toriani, Kevin Horgmo and Josh Gilbert who rounded out the top 20.

It is worth noting that these results were changed after the flag. 10 riders were penalised in a similar situation to that of the second MXGP moto on Sunday where riders were judged to have ignored yellow flags. For instance, in this second MX2 moto of the MXGP of Citta di Mantova, Maxime Renaux crossed the line in seventh but, as above, was credited with ninth. All penalised riders lost two positions, with the exception of Stephen Rubini who was not able to be docked more than one place. The full list of penalised riders and their original positions is as follows: