By Stephen St. Pierre
The MXGP season got underway last weekend with the first round being held at the Losail circuit in Qatar on the Arabian Peninsula. This is the fourth year that the series has travelled to Qatar, which is unlike any other round as they hold the race on Saturday night under lights in order to escape the brutal daytime heat. The track itself resembles more of a supercross circuit as it is carved out of the desert on flat ground and has a series of manmade jumps. Just like in North America, the first round of the series is always highly anticipated as it is our first chance to see where all the riders are at with their off-season training now over and many riders representing new teams.
Qualifying is held the day before the race and consists of one 25 minute moto in each of the classes to determine gate pick. After two injury plagued seasons, Dutch rider Jeffrey Herlings aboard his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing won the MX2 qualifying race by less than two seconds over Team Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Frenchman Dylan Ferrandis with Herlings’ teammate, Latvia’s Pauls Jonass, 35 seconds back in third.
In the MXGP class it was the Honda of Team HRC’s Russian born Evgeny Bobryshev pulling the holeshot and finishing first with the Gariboldi Honda of 2015 MX2 World Champion Tim Gajser of Slovenia, who decided to move to the premier class rather than defend his MX2 title, a very close second. Monster Energy Yamaha Factory mounted Romain Febvre of France, the defending MXGP Champion, finished third, seven seconds behind the winner. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Antonio Cairoli, who’s 2015 season was hampered by injuries, finished fourth. The Italian Cairolli is vying for his 7th title in the MXGP class this year, which would tie him for the all-time lead with Belgian Stefan Everts.
The MX2 Fox first moto holeshot went to Team Red Bull KTM’s Pauls Jonass who was quickly passed by both Team Suzuki’s Swiss rider Jeremy Sewer and Kawasaki’s Dylan Ferrandis. KTM’s Jeffery Herlings also passed his teammate Jonass on the first lap and took over the third spot. Sewer led the first 2 laps until Ferrandis was able to get by and into the lead with Herlings moving into second and setting up a battle for the lead. The two had an epic, bar to bar battle until lap 14 when Herlings made his move into the lead. Ferrandis stayed on Herlings’ tail but it was Herlings who took the first spot in Moto 1 two seconds ahead of Ferrandis, while Jonass was 36 seconds off the lead in third. Rounding out the top 5 were Sewer in fourth and Russian Aleksandr Tonkov on the Yamaha in fifth.
Just like he did in the MXGP qualifying race, Evgeny Bobryshev grabbed the Fox holeshot aboard his HRC Honda in MXGP Moto 1 followed by the Gariboldi Honda of reigning MX2 champion Tim Gajser in his first race in the MXGP class. Red Bull KTM’s Dutch rider Glenn Holdencoff followed in third but before the end of the first lap was passed by reigning MXGP World Champion Roman Febvre. Belgian born Jeremy Van Horebeek, riding for Monster Energy Yamaha, rounded out the top 5 with six-time MXGP champion Antonio Cairolli in sixth. Gasjer followed Bobryshev for 7 laps and on lap 8 made the pass on the inside of turn 1 to take the lead and the rookie hung on for his first moto win in the MXGP class. Bobryshev finished in second place, 7 seconds behind the winner, followed by Febvre in third, 20 seconds back. Van Horebeek got by Holdencoff on lap 7 and stayed in fourth for the rest of the moto finishing 23 seconds off the lead. Cairolli passed Holdencoff on lap 9 to get into the top 5 but lost the position to KTM mounted British rider Shaun Simpson on lap 13, and had to settle for sixth.
The MX2 Fox second moto holeshot went to Kawasaki’s Dylan Ferrandis who was followed by a determined Jeffery Herlings on his KTM. While battling for third with KTM’s Paul Jonass, Suzuki mounted Sewer went down on the opening lap and remounted in eight. Herlings got by Ferrandis and had a 1.5 second lead by the end of lap 1. Herlings quickly started to run away, increasing his lead lap after lap and opening up a 24 second gap by lap 15. As Jonass settled comfortably into third the real battle was for the fourth position with the Belgian Yamaha mounted Brent Van Doninck holding on to the spot over Jeremy Sewer, Bulgarian Kawasaki rider Petar Petrov, and the Russian Yamaha pilot Aleksandr Tonkov all within three seconds of each other. Herlings cruised to the checkered flag leading all 18 laps and finished 17 seconds ahead of Ferrandis, who spent the entire moto in second. Jonass came home in third, 34 seconds behind the leader and only 1.5 seconds ahead of Van Doninck, who won the battle for fourth place. Herlings’ 1-1 finishes gave him the overall win, 50 points and the series lead, followed by Ferrandis’ 2-2 second overall and 44 points, and Jonass’ 3-3 for third overall and 40 points. Sewer went 4-5 for fourth overall and 34 points with Van Doninck rounding out the top 5 going 8-4 for 31 points and fifth overall. This was the fourth year in a row Herlings has won in Qatar and the forty-eighth victory of his career.
The second moto MXGP Fox holeshot went to French rider Gautier Paulin aboard his HRC Honda who went around the outside but was quickly passed by both his teammate Bobryshev and Gariboldi Honda mounted Gasjer. Paulin then had a mechanical breakdown while in third and was out of the race. At the end of lap 1 Gasjer was in the lead followed by Bobryshev, Cairolli, Febvre and Van Horebeek in fifth. On lap 4, Febvre jumped ahead of Cairolli but Cairolli got him back on lap 6 when the Frenchman over jumped and went down in a corner. Both Cairolli and Febvre were able to get by Bobryshev on lap 7, and Febvre took over second place from Cairolli on lap 11 when he passed the Italian KTM rider. Bobryshev regrouped and made a move on Cairolli on lap 15 to take third place and remained there for the rest of the moto. Up front, Gasjer was maintaining a small gap over Febvre and was looking to finish 1-1 in his first MXGP. Gasjer, who is only 19 years old, held off the reigning MXGP Champion and won the second moto by 8 seconds over Febvre, sweeping the day and collecting the maximum 50 points. Gasjer’s win makes him the youngest to ever win a MXGP event in his debut. Febvre finished second, going 3-2 for the day, and claimed second overall and 42 points. He said after the race that he was riding tight in the first moto and also felt hampered by an elbow injury he is healing from. Bobryshev finished third only 1.7 seconds behind Febvre and his 2-3 finishes also earned 42 points putting him in a tie for second place in the standings. Van Horebeek, who ran fifth the entire second moto, went 4-5 for the day earning him fourth overall and 34 points one more than Cairolli whose 4-6 finishes gave him 33 points and fifth overall for the day.
Other notable performances on the day saw the two British riders Shaun Simpson and Tommy Searle finishing sixth and seventh overall, and German pilot Max Nagl finishing tenth.
Round 2 will be the MXGP of Thailand and will take place at the Suphan Buri racetrack on March 6th.The MXGP titles are contested over 18 rounds travelling all over the world and ending on September 11th at Glen Helen racetrack in California. You can watch each round on MXGP-TV.com and get all the news and statistics at MXGP.com