MXGP: Cairoli wins race two in Mantova as Gajser takes first overall of 2020

The 11th round of the MXGP World Championship, the MXGP of Europe, took place in Mantova, the third race in a week in the Italian track. Tim Gajser won the first race earlier in the day, but the speed of the top guys was all quite equal, so everything was open for the second moto. 

Once again it was Jorge Prado who took the holeshot ahead of TIm Gajser, although the #243 hit the front at turn four as the #61 came under pressure from Antonio Cairoli.

Prado made things more difficult for himself when he crashed on the fourth lap, going down on the approach to the Sidi jump in the middle of the lap. That set Gajser a little freer, and Cairoli was promoted to second, Romain Febvre to third.

Gajser then gave Cairoli another position, going down in the long right-hander at turn 11. The Slovenian had looked strong out front until that point, but now had work to do to regain the lead.

From there, the pace between the leaders was incredibly close, but it was clear with 10 minutes to go that the victory would be played between Cairoli and Gajser. The #243 gave himself time to rediscover his rhythm after the crash – with Cairoli not escaping and Febvre at a safe enough distance behind, the championship leader was afforded the time and space to do so. 

As the race neared its closing stages, though, Gajser started to up the pace and apply more pressure to Cairoli. The Italian, though, stood firm and was able to respond to everything Gajser threw at him. 

Both Cairoli and Gajser had their strong and weak points throughout the track, but the area with the biggest discrepancy between the two was in the waves, where Gajser was able to carry more speed in and more momentum through the section compared to the #222. 

It looked like that would be the place for Gajser to do it, but Cairoli was strong through the switchbacks that preceded the waves, and that held until the end of the race, at which point Cairoli won his second moto of the season, whilst Gajser took his first Grand Prix win of 2020, going 1-2. The gap between the two heading into Spain next weekend stands at 11 points, six more than this morning. 

Jeremy Seewer was able to deprive Romain Febvre of third in the second race in the last laps. The Swiss finished third, although that was not enough for the overall podium and the #91 took fourth overall. Febvre, in turn, lost fifth overall as a result of the pass by Seewer and he finished fourth for sixth overall. 

Behind them was Glenn Coldenhoff who was unable to display the same turn of speed as he had at the end of the first moto, although fifth place was enough to put him on the podium in the overall; his first rostrum since he won in Latvia. The Dutchman is now equal on points with Prado in the championship, 58 adrift of Gajser, and sits fifth. 

Clement Desalle was sixth at the finish for his best result since MXGP returned to action in Latvia at the beginning of August. The Belgian took eighth overall with that sixth place, whilst behind him Gautier Paulin went 7-7 for seventh overall; Mitch Evans went 4-8 for fifth overall; Calvin Vlaanderen went 11-9 for 12th overall; and Brian Bogers completed the top 10 of the second moto to go 9-10 for 10th overall. 

11th over the finish was Ivo Monticelli who missed out on a first top 10 overall of the season for the only a second race result that was worse than Bogers – still the Italian’s best result of the season with 11th overall. Behind the #128 was Henry Jacobi, ahead of Tanel Leok, Jose Butron and Dylan Walsh who rounded out the top 15. 

Petar Petrov was 16th, ahead of Jorge Prado whose progress was slight after his crash, indicating perhaps some bike damage, injury or general soreness after his crash early on. After his charge towards the title in recent races, the 58-point mountain the #61 has to climb in the remaining seven GPs looks daunting. 

Behind the Spaniard in the second race were Nicholas Lapucci, Adam Sterry and Valentin Guillod who rounded out the top 20.