After the teasing tasters of Saturday’s Qualifying Races, the MXGP of Patagonia-Argentina served up the main course of the Grand Prix races to get the 2024 MXGP World Championship underway in style.
The beautiful but brutal Villa La Angostura circuit has a unique surface that requires maximum concentration, and its unpredictable nature helped to make the opening round of the season a particularly dramatic one.
Ultimately, it saw victory in MXGP for MXGP World Champion Jorge Prado, who will re-attach the red plates that were put briefly into the container after finishing 4th in Saturday’s Qualifying Race.
The MX2 class provided some brilliant racing throughout the weekend, with all three races seeing changes in the top three right up to the very last few corners! With sheer determination to never stop charging, the overall win went to Kay de Wolf, who also took the red plate from his teammate Lucas Coenen, who had a rollercoaster of a day after going in as Championship leader.
MXGP
Whilst running a white background on his number plate for the first time since the very beginning of last year, Jorge Prado put his number 1 machine into the lead immediately with a trademark Holeshot in race one, and even though the Maxime Renaux sneaked past into turn two, with Romain Febvre following him through, the Champion was having none of it and by the end of the first section of big jumps he was back in control!
Even with all the pre-race talk of the six World Champions in the field, it was still amazing to see them all fill the top six at the start of the opening event! Qualifying Race winner Tim Gajser had an eventful first few laps and battled with the Pauls Jonass, who was right on the pace all weekend. After passing the Latvian, Gajser suddenly slid sideways in a corner and lost the position, before tipping over in the very next corner and dropping from 5th to 13th!
Jeffrey Herlings didn’t enjoy the boost in position for long as he fell at the exact same spot as Gajser a few laps later! He recovered to finish 8th by the chequered flag. Nearly halfway through, Febvre made a move to demote his countryman Renaux from 2nd, but couldn’t make any dent in Prado’s lead. Gajser battled back to 5th, nearly catching Renaux on the last lap, with Jonass 3rd behind Febvre and the winner Prado.
Race two saw Maxime Renaux claim the Holeshot award but he never led again after running wide, allowing Gajser to move to the front, and as the the Slovenian was able to establish an early gap that he never relinquished. All the action happened behind him as Jonass started in 2nd, but that uphill right-hand hairpin caused more trouble as Prado railed around the Latvian into 2nd on lap one, just as Renaux tried to move inside them and fell doing so! The Frenchman had to fight back, eventually to 6th.
Febvre moved past Jonass on the second lap, putting himself into the top three for good and not just in the race, but in the overall reckoning as well. At half-distance, there was an all-Dutch freight train as a slow-starting Herlings caught Glenn Coldenhoff and Calvin Vlaanderen. The Bullet managed to shoot them both but had to give way to Renaux’s late charge and finish in 7th.
Jeremy Seewer took a solid 5th to go with his race one 7th, and the all-World Champion top four of Gajser, Prado, Febvre, and Jonass stayed in that order to the flag, although the Spaniard tangled with a lapped rider to raise his heart rate somewhat in the closing laps!
This left Jorge Prado to claim his 39th overall Grand Prix victory, equalling the great Eric Geboers for 7th in the all-time GP winner’s list and returning him to the top of the MXGP standings. Febvre’s 2nd overall ahead of Gajser left him level with the Slovenian in the championship, both just three points behind the leader as they head to his home territory in Spain!
“Yeah, it was. It was a very good weekend, very good races today,” Prado said. “First one I started 2nd and I passed Maxime (Renaux) very quickly. Yesterday I lost so much time behind him so I knew I had to make the pass straight away. And that’s what I did. And then, you know, Seewer was just behind me all the time. And we were putting a very good pace till the end. It was a good race win. Second race I had a better start to be honest, but I lost it in the corner. I was too cautious and then Tim (Gajser) got me from the inside. He was there at the front and we rode the same pace the whole time. We were riding a good pace. I was riding very smooth all day. I didn’t make any mistakes so I’m very happy. Couldn’t ask for a better start to the year. it’s super cool to go back to Spain and be home for the first round.
MX2
Lucas Coenen had said after Saturday’s Qualifying Race win that he didn’t want to think about his first red plate too much, and as he moved past Marc-Antoine Rossi and his Holeshot-winning brother Sacha Coenen, it didn’t look like the #96 was riding tight. However, just after fending off retaliation from Rossi, he tucked the front wheel and fell awkwardly in a right-hand sweeper. Nursing a thumb injury, he rode slowly into the pits and retired from the first race altogether.
This left Rossi in the lead and loving the fact that although it looks like a sandy surface, away from the berms it is very much like a hard-pack circuit to race on. De Wolf still looked at home and despite running off-track briefly, he picked up a position as Sacha Coenen fell in turn one after four laps.
Andrea Adamo had started badly and could only work his way up to 8th at the end, behind his rookie compatriot Ferruccio Zanch. Sacha Coenen recovered well to finish 6th.
Mikkel Haarup had put his crash-infested Qualifying Race behind him to claim 5th for Triumph Racing in their first full-length GP race! In the last third of the race, Rossi fell on the final corner of the 11th lap to lose the lead to Thibault Benistant! Simon Laengenfelder also nipped past, then carved inside the Frenchman to win the first race for the sixth straight GP in MX2! Rossi tried to pass Benistant on the final lap, but fell as he span sideways and clipped the chasing De Wolf! Amazingly, the Dutchman dived up the inside of Benistant to claim 2nd on the very last corner of the race!
In race two, Mikkel Haarup stuck a major feather in the cap of his new bike as he gunned the Triumph into the lead to take the Holeshot Award! He kept the lead for four laps as Laengenfelder caught up to him and nearly wiped out his back wheel!
The German’s mistake allowed Lucas Coenen, fighting through the pain barrier, into 2nd place, and then the Belgian launched his Husqvarna past Haarup’s Triumph to take the lead!
Lucas’ all-action style cost him dearly though as he ran off the track and lost those two places again, just after Laengenfelder had finally got around Haarup. Amazingly, the Belgian was back into the lead on lap eleven with a brilliant outside-to-inside move around the long and choppy second corner! The German faded, and for the fifth straight GP could not convert his first race win into an overall GP victory, finishing 4th in the race for 2nd overall.
Adamo this time made it up to 5th, to take that position in the overall Grand Prix, ahead of Zanchi, Rossi, Sacha Coenen, and Haarup’s teammate Camden McLellan. Rick Elzinga rounded out the top ten overall.
De Wolf was once more on the charge, pulling a stunning move on Haarup who did not give up easily! This made it a Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing 1-2, but Lucas Coenen dropped the bike in the same corner that he lost the lead on earlier in the race, and again dropped to 3rd just two corners from the chequered flag! This gave Kay De Wolf the race win, his second career GP win, and the Championship lead to take back to Europe!
“It was a good weekend,” de Wolf enthused. “I felt really good actually and I’m really happy with the bike with the bike. So I really enjoyed it. And yeah, it’s a good weekend for me as I build it up the whole weekend, so it paid off in the end. It’s cool to have the red plate, but it doesn’t really mean anything at the moment. We still have 19 GP’s to go, so a long time before then, so I’m just going to have fun and keep enjoying every single weekend. The Husqvarna Factory Team did a great job this winter on the bike and I feel really at one with it. So I’m going to enjoy every single race from now on.”
Up next is the fan and rider favourite MXGP of Spain, hitting the tracks at Intu Xanadú – Arroyomolinos on March 24th.
MXGP – Race 1 – Top 10 Classification :
1 Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 34:28.502
2 Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), +0:10.489
3 Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:20.185
4 Pauls Jonass (LAT, Honda), +0:23.521
5 Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Kawasaki), +0:26.891
6 Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:46.962
7 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:49.416
8 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Fantic), +0:56.995
9 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:59.796
10 Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Honda), +1:03.635
MXGP – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification :
1 Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), 34:15.890
2 Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:09.547
3 Pauls Jonass (LAT, Honda), +0:15.247
4 Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:21.332
5 Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:21.707
6 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Fantic), +0:28.697
7 Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Kawasaki), +0:30.189
8 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:45.718
9 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:48.468
10 Ben Watson (GBR, Beta), +0:53.000
MXGP Overall – Top 10 Classification
1 Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 54 points
2 Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 51 points
3 Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 51 points
4 Pauls Jonass (LAT, HON), 46 points
5 Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 39 points
6 Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 34 points
7 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 32 points
8 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 28 points
9 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 26 points
10 Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 21 points
MXGP World Championship – Top 10 Classification
1 Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 54 points
2 Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 51 points
3 Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 51 points
4 Pauls Jonass (LAT, HON), 46 points
5 Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 39 points
6 Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 34 points
7 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 32 points
8 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 28 points
9 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 26 points
10 Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 21 points
MX2 – Race 1 – Top 10 Classification :
1 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), 34:23.626
2 Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:02.085
3 Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), +0:02.482
4 Marc-Antoine Rossi (FRA, GASGAS), +0:12.308
5 Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:12.777
6 Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:32.737
7 Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +0:37.722
8 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:43.901
9 Quentin Marc Prugnieres (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:46.230
10 Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +0:48.480
MX2 – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification :
1 Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), 34:55.608
2 Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:01.555
3 Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:11.627
4 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:13.862
5 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:40.650
6 Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:41.566
7 Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), +0:41.975
8 Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +0:52.327
9 Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +0:54.965
10 Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:56.852
MX2 Overall – Top 10 Classification
1 Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 47 points
2 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 43 points
3 Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 38 points
4 Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 34 points
5 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 29 points
6 Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 27 points
7 Marc-Antoine Rossi (FRA, GAS), 27 points
8 Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 26 points
9 Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 25 points
10 Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 23 points
MX2 World Championship – Top 10 Classification
1 Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 56 points
2 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 50 points
3 Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 40 points
4 Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 38 points
5 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 37 points
6 Marc-Antoine Rossi (FRA, GAS), 32 points
7 Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 30 points
8 Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 28 points
9 Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 28 points
10 Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 25 points
