MXGP: Febvre wins Mantova race two for first overall win of 2020

The second MXGP class race of the MXGP of Citta di Mantova saw Tim Gajser go in defending a diminishing championship lead, whilst Jorge Prado was well-placed to take the overall win after winning the first moto. 

Surprisingly, it was not Prado who made the holeshot, that instead going to Romain Febvre who led strongly in the early part of the race. 

In fact, Febvre would lead from start to finish. For the first two thirds, the Frenchman held off the attention of Tim Gajser, but a crash for the Slovenian in the final third of the race allowed Febvre to escape. The moto win was the #3’s first for Kawasaki, and the overall win that it resulted in was also his first in green. Additionally, it was Febvre’s first overall win since Loket, 2019, and the first for Kawasaki since Clement Desalle won at Orlyonok in 2018. 

The crash for Gajser dropped him behind Gautier Paulin, who had been in third for most of the race, and was fending off Antonio Cairoli when the #243 went down in the first turn. Gajser did well to hold onto third place ahead of Cairoli, who was briefly fired up when presented with the World Championship leader right in front of him. 

As Cairoli dropped back, Gajser’s pressure on Paulin increased, although the Frenchman never faltered, and was able to take second place – his best moto finish of the season and enough for sixth overall.

Gajser’s third place gave him third overall, but more importantly it restored the five-point advantage that Cairoli had whittled down to three in the first moto. 

Considering he came into this GP with a three-day-old broken nose, it is possible to say that today could have been worse for Cairoli, and that 4-4 for fourth overall and losing nothing in the championship is actually quite positive for the Italian. There is one round left in Mantova, on Sunday, where he will be in contention to take back the red plate, and it is courtesy of his consistency that he is in the fight.

Glenn Coldenhoff displayed some strong late race pace to make sure that Cairoli did not have an easy time to take fourth place. The Dutchman was unable to make a move on Cairoli but this was one of the better rides we have seen from the GASGAS rider since his win in Latvia, and he took seventh overall. 

Behind Coldenhoff was Jorge Prado, whose 1-6 was good enough for second overall and to close his championship deficit down to 35 points. After the Spaniard, there were 25 seconds back to Mitch Evans in seventh, the Australian going 6-7 for eighth overall; while Jeremy van Horebeek took eighth in the second race for ninth overall, finishing ahead of Jeremy Seewer in the second race, the Swiss going 2-9 for fifth overall. The reason for Seewer’s poor showing in the second race was a pair of crashes. The first came just after a crash for Jorge Prado, and dropped him from the battle for the top three, and then a bigger crash – in the waves section – saw his bike sustain more significant damage and cost the #91 some more impactful time. Still, the #91 only lost two points over the course of the day to Gajser and Cairoli in the championship, so it was far from a disaster for the Yamaha rider. 

Jordi Tixier completed the top 10 in the second moto, and that was also enough for him to complete the top 10 overall, his best finish of the season. Behind the Frenchman in the second moto was Dylan Walsh in his best ride since he joined JM Honda Racing in place of the retired Julian Lieber; then came Henry Jacobi; Ivo Monticelli; a quite heroic Evgeny Bobryshev; and Tanel Leok who completed the top 15. 

In 16th was Brian Bogers, whilst Clement Desalle was 17th after a crash in the first turn. Petar Petrov was 18th, ahead of Jose Butron and Adam Sterry who rounded out the top 20.