MXGP: Penalties for Prado, Febvre hand Seewer first MXGP overall win

After the first MXGP moto of the day in Mantova for the MXGP of Lombardia, Jeremy Seewer was in prime position to take the overall win heading into the second moto after winning the first outing.

Jorge Prado took the holeshot in one of the least surprising occurrences of the day. He led the early stages from Romain Febvre and Tim Gajser. 

Febvre spent too long trying to pass the Spaniard, and he fell victim to Gajser when the #3 made a mistake entering the waves. Gajser then made quick work of Prado, and duly cleared off. 

No one could match the speed of the reigning World Champion once he hit the front, and the #243 took another moto win, his fifth of the season. With it, the Slovenian took hold of the red plate for the first time in 2020. 

Prado held onto second place despite continued pressure from Romain Febvre. The Frenchman was unable to be as decisive as Gajser when trying to pass the #61, and so was resigned to third. 

Both Prado and Febvre were penalised post-race for jumping under yellow flags. Both riders lost two positions, and it cost Prado the Grand Prix victory, handing it instead to Jeremy Seewer who inherited third in the second moto and won in spite of a crash early on in the second race whilst chasing his teammate, Gautier Paulin. It was Seewer’s first win in MXGP and, although it came in strange circumstances, it launches the Swiss onto 300 points in the championship, just 16 off Gajser who now leads. 

Between Gajser and Seewer in the second race results was Glenn Coldenhoff. Second in the second race was also good enough for second overall for the #259, his first podium since winning in Latvia at round three. 

Gautier Paulin was sixth in the second race, enough for ninth overall after his 13th in race one. The Frenchman was over 30 seconds ahead of Clement Desalle who took seventh for fifth overall. Behind Desalle was Henry Jacobi, whose eighth place was not enough for a top 10 overall, and neither was Mitch Evans’ ninth place. Jeremy van Horebeek was 10th in the second moto for 10th overall. 

Calvin Vlaanderen was 11th which gave him seventh overall; he finished the second moto ahead of Jordi Tixier, Brian Bogers and Dylan Walsh, whilst Antonio Cairoli completed the top 15 after stopping for a goggle change and struggling for speed thereafter. The poor second moto dropped Cairoli from the top of the championship to second, five points behind Gajser, and to eighth in the overall Grand Prix results. 

Behind Cairoli was Ivo Monticelli in 16th, ahead of Adam Sterry, Tanel Leok, Karlis Sabulis and Petar Petrov who rounded out the top 20.