MXGP: Prado dominates Arroyomolinos race one

The MXGP World Championship moved out of Italy for the first time since August for the MXGP of Spain. World Championship leader, Tim Gajser, qualified on pole position and had the first gate pick ahead of race one.

It was Jorge Prado who took the 12th holeshot of his rookie MXGP season. The Spaniard led early on from Romain Febvre and Mitch Evans who led a Honda trio in which he was followed by Dylan Walsh and Tim Gajser, although a mistake at the start of the first official lap from Walsh allowed Gajser into fourth. 

Also in the early part of the first official lap, Evans was able to move through into second place ahead of Febvre, and immediately started to pressure Prado.

Eight minutes in and Evans began to struggle, losing positions to Febvre and Gajser as the #43 dropped to fourth. 

As the three behind Prado were battling, the Spaniard himself was getting away, and this caused Gajser to become more impatient in his quest for second place in order to have a straight shot at the #61.

At the end of the first 10 minutes, Evans’ race was over, as he crashed at the landing of the Ipone double. That left the top three on their own, and they were fairly well amongst themselves, as well, at this point, with Prado dragging Febvre away from Gajser whilst stretching away from the Frenchman himself.

By the end, Prado was showboating, and came across the finish to win the first race of his home Grand Prix by a dominant seven seconds. The race was far from a classic from the neutral perspective, but for Prado it was a statement, out-pacing the whole field from gate drop to checkers and leaving no room for doubt about who is the favourite heading into the second moto. 

Romain Febvre held on for second place, two seconds ahead of Tim Gajser who handsomely increased his gap atop the championship over Antonio Cairoli. Between the Slovenian and the Italian were Clement Desalle in a season-best fourth, Glenn Coldenhoff and Gautier Paulin, meaning the gap between the first two in the championship is 17 points ahead of the second race. 

The seventh for Cairoli was born mostly out of a poor start, in which he was outside of the top 10. The track in Arroyomolinos is proving tough to pass on and the deep ruts cannot be helping Cairoli who is still suffering with his knee. Nonetheless, the second moto will be important for Cairoli to try and limit the damage of this round in the championship. 

Behind the #222 was Brian Bogers, the Dutchman ahead of Jeremy van Horebeek and Jeremy Seewer, the Swiss completing the top 10 after a nasty crash down the hill towards turn three. 

Jordi Tixier was 11th, ahead of Valentin Guillod, Ivo Monticelli, Calvin Vlaanderen and Henry Jacobi who completed the top 15; while Jose Butron was 16th in front of Petar Petrov, Adam Sterry, Ander Valentin and Artem Guryev who was the only rider to finish off the lead lap as he completed the top 20.