MXGP: Lombardia race one dominated by Seewer

After one week off, the MXGP World Championship was back in action at Mantova for the MXGP of Lombardia. Tim Gajser had first gate pick for the first moto after topping time practice. 

Jeremy Seewer took the holeshot for the first premier class race of the day, edging out Jorge Prado who tailed him closely. 

Behind, Antonio Cairoli was able to clear Brian Bogers early on to take third place and chase after the leading pair.

Cairoli did not have the speed of the two ahead of him, however, and he dropped five second back of them after a few laps. Similarly, Seewer was able to keep Prado at bay in the early stages before edging away in the second half of the moto. 

In the end, the Swiss rider’s margin was nine seconds as he took his second race win of the season, and his second in the last three races. HIs speed in the Mantova sand, following on from his race-winning speed in Faenza, proves his credentials as a title contender. Back in the MXGP of Emilia Romagna, where Seewer took his first race win, he missed out on a first MXGP overall win with a poor start in the second moto. The #91’s target, then, must surely be to secure his first premier class Grand Prix victory later today. 

Jorge Prado’s race was quite straightforward, as he did not have the speed of Seewer in front, but was fast enough to keep Cairoli behind at bay. 

Despite losing ground in the early laps, Cairoli’s speed after the first 10 minutes was equal to that of Prado, so there is not too much to worry about for the #222, who extended his championship lead over Tim Gajer and lost only five points to Seewer, two to Prado. 

Glenn Coldenhoff had a quiet, seemingly uneventful ride to fourth place, ahead Calvin Vlaanderen who had a similar experience on his way to a maiden top five in an MXGP race. Behind, Arminas Jasikonis was sixth despite a small mistake that cost him time and no positions in the second turn mid-way through the race. The #27 was ahead of Clement Desalle, Tim Gajser, Jeremy van Horebeek and Romain Febvre who rounded out the top 10. 

The latter four, there, were in a train for much of the race headed by Brian Bogers. It was a similar situation to that found in the first MX2 race where Mathys Boisrame proved something of a roadblock for those behind. This time, the roadblock was Bogers who held strong in eighth until his defences were breached by van Horebeek. At that point, the floodgates opened on the #89 and he fell back to 12th behind Alessandro Lupino in 11th. 

Behind Bogers was Gautier Paulin, who came back to 13th after falling on the start straight right out of the gate in an incident with Ivo Monticelli who was out on the spot. 

Henry Jacobi was 14th, whilst Jordi Tixier completed the top 15, ahead of Adam Sterry in 16th. Sterry started with the top guys in this race, inside the top 10, and although he was unable to stick with them the time spent around the likes of Febvre and Gajser will no doubt have been valuable for the #811 in his disturbed debut year in the premier class, this his first race back from injury after missing all three Faenza races, which in turn came after switching teams in the lockdown break. 

After Sterry came Tanel Leok, ahead of Mitch Evans, Samuele Bernardini and Nicholas Lapucci who rounded out the top 20.

One of the major moments in the race was a crash for Evgeny Bobryshev at the table before the final turn. It looked as though Bobryshev’s throttle stuck open on take off, or a bump opened it unintentionally. Either way, the way the Russian was launched off the take off was scary and the landing was equally so. Bobryshev was carried away on a stretcher, although not too long after the crash which was encouraging. His condition is, at the time of writing, unclear, but it would be a major surprise if he were to line up for the second moto later today.