For the third GP out of the last four, wet weather affected the conditions for the MXGP World Motocross Championships this weekend, but the Liqui Moly MXGP of Germany provided more fantastic confrontations between the leading contenders in both classes at the Talkessel!
What the weather could not affect, however, was the enthusiasm of the German fans, who created an incredible atmosphere in the tight valley of the Teutschenthal venue. The hosting MSC Teutschenthal club also worked very hard with the MXGP track crew to keep the circuit in the best racing condition possible.
After struggling more than most in muddy conditions so far this season, reigning World Champion Jorge Prado took his sixth Grand Prix win of the season in MXGP, with two race wins, achieved in his customary style of getting out early and holding off all challengers, although he certainly had challenges to contend with! He leaves Germany with the red plate back on his machine, and a slender two-point lead in his pocket heading to Latvia.
In MX2 Kay de Wolf and Lucas Coenen battled hard, with Coenen coming out on top to make it three straight GP wins for the #96 rider. This moves him up to second in the Championship table, 59 points behind his teammate.
MXGP
Tim Gajser took to the starting line first and knew that the start would be more vital than ever on the sticky circuit, which still had a hard base to affect traction amongst all the ruts. The Slovenian led the championship by six points over Jorge Prado after winning Saturday’s Qualifying Race.
For the first time this year, Glenn Coldenhoff took the Holeshot with Henry Jacobi again getting involved with the front runners, as Prado ran the German hero wide, allowing Gajser to briefly grab second from the reigning Champ! However, Prado was having none of it and the pair got aggressive with each other in the first few corners! Just after completing the move on Gajser, the Spaniard made a decisive move up the inside of Coldenhoff to take the lead halfway around the first lap!
Gajser took some time to get past Coldenhoff, and when he finally did on lap four, Prado was already eight seconds down the track. Leading as well as usual and setting the fastest lap on lap four to immediately squash Gajser’s hopes of catching, it was the ninth GP race win of the year for the defending World Champion.
There was more battling going on behind him, though, as Calvin Vlaanderen worked his way forward along with Jeffrey Herlings, who was outside of the top ten around the first corner! Romain Febvre, meanwhile, started touring, and pulled out of the weekend’s racing, turning straight into the paddock on the third lap as he struggled with a thumb injury.
Gajser seemed to not have his full speed available to him and later confessed to suffering with intense arm-pump issues. Herlings fought past both the Slovenian and, on lap fourteen of seventeen, Vlaanderen to take what would be a solid second place. Calvin passed Tim, but fell in a right hander by the start straight and gifted the position back. They swapped places twice more, a loss of traction on a jump costing the Dutchman third position, and keeping Gasjer in the Championship lead by a single point going into race two!
Pauls Jonass made a late move on Coldenhoff to claim fifth, but ultimately no one could touch Prado who took a win by 13 seconds from Herlings after backing off for the last few easy laps.
The rain held off and let the track dry out, making it around five or more seconds per lap faster than race one, and with the confidence to move to a slightly more outside gate, Prado grabbed his ninth Holeshot of the season, but he had company this time in the shape of “The Bullet” as Herlings held an inside line in turn two to pass Jeremy Seewer for second. Gajser and Vlaanderen also got past the Swiss veteran to give chase to the flying Prado.
It looked like Herlings had got his claws into the reigning Champ with a series of faster laps that put him just a second shy of the leader. Then he hit a rut a little too hard and although he didn’t crash, it hurt his momentum and he was almost immediately under attack from Gajser!
On lap twelve the Slovenian made his move in the middle of the valley, and took up the chase to Prado! Vlaanderen and Coldenhoff held on to fourth and fifth, and Seewer made a late move to grab sixth veteran Valentin Guillod.
Gajser, just as Herlings before him, got to within a second of Prado, but the Spaniard simply would not crack and kept up his pace to break the pursuit, eventually winning by just over three seconds. The Spaniard moves onto 44 Grand Prix wins for his career, two behind Gajser for sixth in the all-time win list.
“It was overall a perfect weekend,” Prado said. “I’m super happy with my riding. Getting back to hard pack with more normal conditions for me. It was good with good starts too. Not much to say, I’m just very happy to get another win! We keep going like this with Latvia next,, which is a good track for me so let’s get some sand riding next week!”
MX2
The MX2 class held the main hopes of the German crowd for some home success as their man Simon Laengenfelder, second in the points standings, took the fastest lap in Time Practice, before a fall cost him a shot at the Qualifying Race, which was won by Kay de Wolf.
It was the man in form, Lucas Coenen, who took his first Holeshot of the year to lead immediately in race one, but crowd favourite Laengenfelder was in second, and after disposing of Andrea Adamo around the first lap, so too was De Wolf – the top three in the series briefly in reverse order!
It didn’t take the Dutchman long to get around the German, though, and took up the chase to Lucas Coenen. The top five stayed in their order throughout the race, with Adamo fourth, and Rick Elzinga fifth. After carving past Kay Karssemakers on the third lap, Quentin Prugnieres was sixth, despite holding off several attempts from rookie Ferruccio Zanchi. Liam Everts had one of those races to forget with a poor start and a further crash, just to nip past Zanchi on the final lap to salvage seventh.
De Wolf made several runs at Lucas, but this time the Belgian did not crack, and it was Kay who made the mistakes as he chased, ultimately having to settle for second despite claiming the fastest lap of the race. It was Lucas’ fourth straight GP race win and left him just a point behind Laengenfelder for second in the series.
A fired-up Laengenfelder took the Holeshot ahead of Adamo and Elzinga, but De Wolf and Lucas Coenen battled past the Dutch Yamaha star and the reigning World Champion to try and chase down the crowd favourite as the valley vibrated to the sound of horns, hooters, and revving chainsaw engines encouraging their man to greater heights!
Despite this, De Wolf was through into the lead on the second lap, and Lucas got through on lap six. Adamo also took advantage of a mistake by the German to grab third, but a few corners later he was on the ground after overbalancing on a corner jump. He would recover to finish sixth. Just in front of the pit lane a lap later, De Wolf tipped over in a deep rut and handed the lead to his teammate! As Mikkel Haarup moved up to take a fine fourth-place finish, so a pitched battle between the leading two men in the series took place. De Wolf had issues in several deep ruts just as he was looking to attack, then in front of a bank of spectators on a long left-hander made a stunning move around Laengenfelder on lap fifteen!
It wasn’t over there though, as the red plate holder again made a mistake in a rut and allowed the German back past, only to repeat his earlier move to the anguish of the crowd and finally clinch second place!
It was all too late to stop Lucas Coenen, however, who cruised to a win that buried the memories of a broken chain denying him his first GP win here 12 months ago. It was a 9.5 second win that built his streak to five straight race wins and three Grand Prix wins, and it moves him ahead of Laengenfelder to second in the Championship, 59 points behind De Wolf.
“That’s three in a row, it’s amazing to see how everything can go perfectly let’s say,” Coenen said. “During the last few laps, I was quite nervous because of what happened last year but I can now get over it finally with winning Teutschenthal. I saw Kay crash which is a bummer as I wanted us to do the same as in the first race but I got the win so I’m happy. I can’t thank enough everybody around me.”
Now the teams and crews head 1,400 km northeast to the sandy terrain of Kegums in Latvia, where The Bullet took his most recent Grand Prix win, and the battle will be joined in both classes once more!
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification:
1 Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), 36:00.648
2 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:12.895
3 Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:14.689
4 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:17.094
5 Pauls Jonass (LAT, Honda), +0:22.867
6 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Fantic), +0:31.524
7 Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, Yamaha), +0:40.501
8 Brian Bogers (NED, Fantic), +0:45.931
9 Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Kawasaki), +0:50.795
10 Henry Jacobi (GER, KTM), +0:57.896
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1 Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), 35:36.969
2 Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:03.329
3 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:07.378
4 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:41.166
5 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Fantic), +0:49.615
6 Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Kawasaki), +0:54.007
7 Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +1:11.756
8 Tom Koch (GER, KTM), +1:19.029
9 Valentin Guillod (SUI, Honda), +1:24.930
10 Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, Husqvarna), +1:26.354
MXGP Overall – Top 10 Classification:
1 Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 50 points
2 Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 42 Points
3 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 42 Points
4 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 36 Points
5 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 31 Points
6 Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 27 Points
7 Brian Bogers (NED, FAN), 23 Points
8 Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 21 Points
9 Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 21 Points
10 Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, HUS), 21 Points
MXGP – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1 Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 402 points
2 Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 400 Points
3 Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 336 Points
4 Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 327 Points
5 Pauls Jonass (LAT, HON), 274 Points
6 Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 267 Points
7 Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 263 Points
8 Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 231 Points
9 Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 161 Points
10 Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 151 Points
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification:
1 Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), 35:07.874
2 Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:03.664
3 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:25.075
4 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:54.760
5 Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +0:59.138
6 Quentin Marc Prugnieres (FRA, Kawasaki), +1:10.063
7 Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +1:15.887
8 Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +1:17.707
9 Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), +1:35.788
10 Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +1:37.187
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification :
1 Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), 35:45.714
2 Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:09.505
3 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:11.179
4 Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:12.866
5 Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +0:26.367
6 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:42.902
7 Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:59.027
8 Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +1:09.723
9 Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), +1:14.332
10 Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +1:15.882
MX2 Overall – Top 10 Classification:
1 Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 50 points
2 Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 44 Points
3 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 40 Points
4 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 33 Points
5 Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 32 Points
6 Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 29 Points
7 Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 28 Points
8 Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 26 Points
9 Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), 24 Points
10 Quentin Marc Prugnieres (FRA, KAW), 23 Points
MX2 – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1 Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 396 points
2 Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 337 Points
3 Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 333 Points
4 Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 304 Points
5 Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 299 Points
6 Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 252 Points
7 Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 249 Points
8 Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 226 Points
9 Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 178 Points
10 Quentin Marc Prugnieres (FRA, KAW), 152 Points
