PHOTOGRAPHY JP ACEVEDO
Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Max Nagl fired the first shot at the ninth round of the FIM Motocross World Championship, taking home the qualifying heat race win in Maggiora, Italy.
When the gates dropped it looked as though the two fastest in timed practice—Team HRC’s Evgeny Bobryshev and Gautier Paulin—would lead the way around turn one, but the two collided and went down.
Instead it was KTM’s Steven Frossard that grabbed the holeshot, followed by Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Antonio Cairoli and Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Max Nagl. As the trio exited turn three, Cairoli took the lead, much to the delight of the home crowd. Misfortune would soon follow, as Cairoli crashed out of the race before the first lap finished.
With Cairoli out, Nagl took the lead and then it was game over for the rest of MXGP as the red plate holder ran away for his first qualifying heat victory of the season. Meanwhile behind the German, Frossard put in a phenomenal performance before he lost the front around the midway mark and retired. It was Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Jeremy Van Horebeek who capitalized on the mistakes of Cairoli and Frossard and took home a comfortable second ahead Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM’s Shaun Simpson, who came home in third.
The most impressive performance of the day was undoubtedly that of Bobryshev who rallied his way from last all the way up to fourth. Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe’s Glenn Coldenhoff also put in a great performance for fifth with Paulin rounding out the top six.
Rockstar Energy Suzuki’s Kevin Strijbos was seventh ahead of Van Horebeek’s young teammate Romain Febvre. Rounding out the top 10 was Alessandro Lupino on the Team AssoMotor Honda and Nagl’s teammate Todd Waters.
As for Strijbos’ teammate, Clement Desalle went out in free practice, but still cannot ride due to a shoulder and a knee injury and has withdrawn.
In the MX2 class there was no catching the Red Bull KTM Factory bikes out of the gate as Pauls Jonass snatched the holeshot from The Bullet Jeffrey Herlings. But Herlings wasted no time in taking over the lead from his teammate. Jonass then tried to tuck in behind Herlings, but had to switch from attack to defense mode with Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Thomas Covington and Standing Construct Yamaha Yamalube’s Valentin Guillod on his tail.
Covington dropped out of the mix when he went down in the first few laps while Guillod, kept Herlings in his sights. With Jonass dropping back to third, the next challenger for the Latvian was the defending champion Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jordi Tixier who, six laps in, managed to execute a sweet pass by launching the step up for the inside line on the following turn.
Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki’s Max Anstie was the next rider to start reeling Jonass in after passing Honda Gariboldi’s Tim Gajser in the early stages of the race. After a few laps of eating the pebble-like clay roost, both Anstie and Gajser were gifted a position when Jonass went down.
Wilvo Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Aleksandr Tonkov also took advantage of Jonass’ fault and moved up to sixth which soon became fifth as Anstie suffered another engine malfunction.
At the checkered flag, it was Herlings who rode flawless for the win while Guillod put in a solid performance for second. Tixier was also unchallenged in third and rounding out the top five was Gajser and Tonkov, respectively.
2015 Maggiora MXGP Qualifying Race Results:
1. Maximilian Nagl (Husqvarna)
2. Jeremy Van Horebeek (Yamaha)
3. Shaun Simpson (KTM)
4. Evgeny Bobryshev (Honda)
5. Glenn Coldenhoff (Suzuki)
6. Gautier Paulin (Honda)
7. Kevin Strijbos (Suzuki)
8. Romain Febvre (Yamaha)
9. Alessandro Lupino (Honda)
10. Todd Waters (Husqvarna)
MX2 Qualifying Results:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (KTM)
2. Valentin Guillod (Yamaha)
3. Jordi Tixier (Kawasaki)
4. Tim Gajser (Honda)
5. Aleksandr Tonkov (Husqvarna)
6. Pauls Jonass (KTM)
7. Julien Lieber (Yamaha)
8. Damon Graulus (Yamaha)
9. Brian Bogers (KTM)
10. Vsevolod Brylyakov (Honda)
