France Tops Maggiora Motocross Of Nations Qualifying

Qualifying day at the Motocross of Nations in Maggiora, Italy, is all about gate pick for the main motos tomorrow and after the MXGP, MX2 and Open races, it is France that will have the first option. Romain Febvre won his MXGP race, while Gautier Paulin came second in the Open class. Third member Benoit Paturel also impressed with a third place in the MX2 class but his result wasn’t needed as only the top two scores count towards the total.

 Unfortunately for Team USA, their day started off badly with the ballot giving them 30^th gate pick for the qualifying races and it ended up getting worse from there. Cooper Webb crashed in the first race and struggled to restart it, eventually finishing 18^th. Alex Martin fared slightly better but also made mistakes at critical points and could only make his way back to 9^th place. At that stage there was a real danger that the team wouldn’t qualify, especially when Jason Anderson crashed at the beginning of the Open race. However, he swept through the field and ended up 14^th which was enough to give the USA 15^th gate pick for the races. Not a great result but the racing today proved you can get a good start from anywhere with Herlings and Cairoli getting holeshots from the outside on a Maggiora track that also seems slightly easier to pass on than in previous years.

1.      Romain Febvre (France)

2.      Antonio Cairoli (Italy)

3.      Kevin Strijbos (Belgium)

4.      Tommy Searle (Great Britain)

5.      Glenn Coldenhoff (Netherlands)
…
18. Cooper Webb (USA)

1.      Jeremy van Horebeek (Belgium)

2.      Jeremy Seewer (Switzerland)

3.      Benoit Paturel (France)

4.      Jorge Prado Garcia (Spain)

5.      Brian Bogers (Netherlands)
…
9. Alex Martin (USA)

1.      Jeffrey Herlings (Netherlands)

2.      Gautier Paulin (France)

3.      Dean Ferris (Australia)

4.      Arnaud Tonus (Switzerland)

5.      Shaun Simpson (Great Britain)
…
14. Jason Anderson (USA)

1.      France – 3pts

2.      Belgium – 4pts

3.      Netherlands – 6pts

4.      Switzerland – 6pts

5.      Italy – 9pts

…
15. USA – 23pts