Jorge Prado kept a firm grip on the red plate at round four of the 2023 FIM Motocross World Championship, the Grand Prix of Trentino while Andrea Adamo snared his first win in MX2.
As riders left the gate for MXGP Race One in Pietramurata, Jorge Prado took the Holeshot and rode a strong and composed race to never be headed and going on to win by a good margin.
The start of the race was marked by a big crash involving many riders including Jeffrey Herlings, Romain Febvre, and Jeremy Seewer. The incident hindered their chances to score maximum points. In the end, Seewer had to settle for sixth place while Febvre finished twelfth.
Behind Prado were Ruben Fernandez and Ben Watson second and third in the opening laps. Unfortunately for Watson, after a great start, he couldn’t hang on to the top ten and had to settle for eleventh but still earned good points.
Fernandez looked very comfortable as he got close to Prado over three laps. After that, the Spaniard looked to settle for second place but Maxime Renaux had other plans. Renaux went sixth after lap one but looked determined to chase after the top points. He overtook Mattia Guadagnini on lap one and then battled with Benoit Paturel. Paturel who started very well was not ready to give up his third place easily but eventually had to concede to the Frenchman. Renaux went on to get closer and closer to Fernandez and finally pounced two laps before the end to reach second. Fernandez settled for third.
Paturel was overtaken a few times after that and dropped down to a decent tenth place in the end. Guadagnini battled his way upward a few times during the race to reach fourth by the chequered flag. Guadagnini, Valentin Guillod, Alberto Forato, and Calvin Vlaanderen all found themselves fighting until the end. The advantage went to Guadagnini as he finished fourth. Then Forato finished fifth, right in front of sixth place Vlaanderen, who shadowed him the whole race. Guillod settled for seventh.
Glenn Coldenhoff had to battle his way up after a mid-pack start. The Dutch methodically made his way up the ranking order, displaying some solid riding while never being overtaken to ultimately finish eighth.
The performance of the race was definitely from Jeffery Herlings, who after being involved in the multiple-rider collision, showed why he has already achieved the 100th GP win of his career. From being last when he picked up his bike, the “bullet” incredibly and quickly passed most of the riders in front of him. On a mission not to lose too much ground in the championship, his determination saw him overtake three-quarters of the field in the eighteen laps to get ninth.
In race two, Prado made it 100% for the weekend as he clinched the second Holeshot, making for a total of five this season already. Prado led in front of Renaux and Febvre, who never let the Red Plate holder relax for a second. It looked like a three-way battle for the lead until Herlings came through to disrupt the order.
Herlings found himself seventh on lap one and began his charge to the top as he successively overtook Seewer, Guillod (who finished eleventh), and Fernandez to get to fourth place on lap six. He then passed Febvre and inched closer to the front two, Prado and Renaux while also setting the fastest lap time. While Prado was defending against Renaux, Herlings made a move to attack them both, making an impressive double overtake over three turns. Herlings then quickly pulled away to fly to his first race victory of the season. In the meantime, Renaux also passed Prado to finish second while Prado finished third.
Febvre finished comfortably in fourth position. On his part, Seewer had a better start, which is what the Swiss needed to feel confident on the bike. Being eighth on lap one, Seewer benefitted from Brent Van doninck’s mistake to get up to seventh and then showed his well-known speed to overtake Guillod for sixth. He didn’t stop there as he also moved on Fernandez to get to fifth by race end. Coldenhoff shadowed him the whole race to finish sixth. Fernandez would settle for seventh.
Behind them, Van Doninck who started very well and got to sixth on lap one had to concede a few positions along the way to finish eighth, which means good points to stay in close reach of the top ten in the championship, in thirteenth place overall.
In the end, excellent throughout the weekend Jorge Prado clinched his first GP win of the season with a 1-3 and keeps the Red Plate for the next stop in Portugal while Maxime Renaux continues his current form to go two-two, with a back-to-back podium and got to the second step of the podium. Jeffrey Herlings closed the podium with an excellent comeback and a 9-1.
“I am super happy with the victory!” Prado said. “I was struggling with the track a little bit, so to get a win was very important. I had two solid starts on my MC 450F. I could make a gap in the first moto, so I just managed the race. I tried to do the same in the second moto, without making mistakes and finished third. I am really happy with this result.”
MX2
In MXtwo, Jago Geerts took the first Holeshot of the day and kept the lead until the end. The Belgian displayed a solid performance, never under pressure despite having Liam Everts behind him for most of the race. However, Everts, who looked like he was set to finish second, was overtaken by Andrea Adamo on the last lap. Adamo finished second and Everts third.
Previous round winner Thibault Benistant looked sharp and was third after lap one as he attacked Everts for second. However, Benistant was also under pressure from Adamo on lap and would settle for fourth in the end. Behind him, Kay de Wolf who was seventh on lap one did everything he could to get to the top points. De Wolf also used the famous triple jump of Pietramurata to overtake, like he did to pass Mikkel Haarup for sixth (Harrup finished tenth in the end). He kept going and squeezed past the inside of Emil Weckman for fifth where he would finish in the end. Weckman managed a very good race as he finished eighth for his first top-ten of the season.
Roan Van de Moosdijk maintained his consistency, as he rode into the top ten the whole race going from eighth to seventh after passing Haarup. Van de Moosdijk also passed Weckman for sixth on the final lap.
Finally, Simon Laengenfelder made an amazing comeback after falling down early in the race and found himself eighteenth on lap one. The German exhibited a great determination to finally crack the top ten.
In Race Two, Laengenfelder started very quickly as he took the Holeshot and rapidly edge away from Benistant second. Laengenfelder showed imperious control as he was never headed and went on to win.
Adamo who got the better of Everts in lap four to get third, went for Benistant in second as the Frenchman could not match Adamo’s pace, eventually, Adamo finished comfortably second for a very good two-two to win the GP.
Everts also dug deep to first overtake Benistant for third and then to maintain his third position in front of de Wolf. Everts held his ground to finish third for the first podium of his career. De Wolf settled for fourth in the end. Benistant had to settle for fifth.
Van de Moosdijk, who found himself seventh on lap one, went on to another solid ride to overtake Weckman in lap four to remain sixth until the end.
Finishing sixth and getting on the podium, Geerts made an outstanding effort as he got caught on the first lap twice to find himself way down the order. However, the red Plate holder is a ferocious competitor and was not to give up easily. A heroic comeback saw him methodically overtaking riders lap after lap to finally got to seventh place where he remained until the end.
Horgmo rode a pretty consistent race as he kept his eighth place from start to finish for a good eighth place overall. Jan Pancar also managed to get into the top ten as after a decent start he was tenth on lap one and oscillate through the race to end up tenth in the end.
In the end, Andrea Adamo clinched his first GP win on his home soil while Liam Everts also got onto his first podium of his career. Jago Geerts managed with his outstanding riding in race two, to get to the third step of the podium and keep his Red Plate.
“I’m so happy. I did not expect this and what a place to get my first victory,” Adamo said. “My starts were good, but not perfect, and I passed who I needed to win, I tried to control the race and take P2 for the overall! An ideal weekend. I am still not thinking about the championship but going race-by-race and to bring as many points as possible. I don’t want to think too far ahead.”
MXGP regroups for round five in a fortnight. The Grand Prix of Portugal at Agueda, south of Porto, is the first of two Iberian dates with the Spanish GP at Arroyomolinos, close to Madrid happening a week later.
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification:
1 Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), 35:37.190
2 Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:12.946
3 Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:15.731
4 Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, GASGAS), +0:16.529
5 Alberto Forato (ITA, KTM), +0:20.544
6 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:22.312
7 Valentin Guillod (SUI, Honda), +0:23.707
8 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Yamaha), +0:24.588
9 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:25.301
10 Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:30.451
MXGP- Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 35:21.703
2 Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:06.103
3 Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), +0:10.834
4 Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:17.668
5 Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Yamaha), +0:18.161
6 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Yamaha), +0:21.752
7 Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:24.208
8 Brent Van doninck (BEL, Honda), +0:27.096
9 Brian Bogers (NED, Honda), +0:28.056
10 Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, GASGAS), +0:34.972
MXGP – GP Top 10 Classification:
1 Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 45 Points
2 Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 44 Points
3 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 37 Points
4 Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 34 Points
5 Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, GAS), 29 Points
6 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, YAM), 28 Points
7 Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 27 Points
8 Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 24 Points
9 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 24 Points
10 Alberto Forato (ITA, KTM), 22 Points
MXGP – World Championship Top 10 Classification:
1 Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 201 Points
2 Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 184 Points
3 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 175 Points
4 Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 166 Points
5 Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 136 Points
6 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 125 Points
7 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, YAM), 120 Points
8 Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, GAS), 108 Points
9 Jeremy Seewer (SUI, YAM), 107 Points
10 Alberto Forato (ITA, KTM), 98 Points
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification:
1 Jago Geerts (BEL, Yamaha), 35:33.508
2 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:03.071
3 Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:03.791
4 Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), +0:14.293
5 Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:14.905
6 Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, Husqvarna), +0:34.869
7 Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:35.776
8 Emil Weckman (FIN, Honda), +0:40.093
9 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:41.426
10 Mikkel Haarup (DEN, KTM), +0:50.162
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), 35:42.114
2 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:06.050
3 Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:07.273
4 Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:11.273
5 Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), +0:13.258
6 Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, Husqvarna), +0:27.433
7 Jago Geerts (BEL, Yamaha), +0:32.467
8 Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Kawasaki), +0:34.890
9 Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:39.245
10 Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), +0:52.265
MX2 – GP Top 10 Classification:
1 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 44 Points
2 Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 40 Points
3 Jago Geerts (BEL, YAM), 39 Points
4 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 37 Points
5 Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 34 Points
6 Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 34 Points
7 Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, HUS), 30 Points
8 Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 26 Points
9 Kevin Horgmo (NOR, KAW), 23 Points
10 Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), 19 p
MX2 – World Championship Top 10 Classification:
1 Jago Geerts (BEL, YAM), 205 Points
2 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 183 Points
3 Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 182 Points
4 Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 173 Points
5 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 158 Points
6 Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, HUS), 147 Points
7 Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 140 Points
8 Kevin Horgmo (NOR, KAW), 119 Points
9 Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 102 Points
10 Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), 85 Points
