The longest FIM Motocross World Championship on record came to a damp but thrilling end through the hefty climbs and steep drops of the Villars sous Ecot circuit in eastern France and for the fancifully named Grand Prix of Pays de Montbeliard. It rained for the 19th round, and once more the shade of the deluge was orange.
Showers were frequent in France and have been a recurrent component of MXGP this year. Although the second MX2 moto and a long stretch of the second MXGP race were dry and took place on scarred and sticky, clayish soil; make no mistake, this event was a mudder.
In spite of the adversity of the conditions and the dipping motivation for large pockets of the Grand Prix contingent (witness MXGP World Champion Antonio Cairoli’s tip-over and sixth in MXGP moto one and another crash and withdrawal in moto two) a decent crowd dressed for winter and filled the venue and were rewarded for the mess with some entertaining scraps and memorable scenes.
Above all, MX2 was decided in Red Bull KTM’s favour and after 15 podiums and six wins for Pauls Jonass, the 20-year-old a deserving winner despite the speed and best efforts of Suzuki’s Jeremy Seewer (the Swiss fourth overall and just ahead of his rival here) and leading the category from round five. Jonass set a couple of milestones with yet-another charge from a first lap crash to capture fifth place and mathematically seal the job in the first moto. He was KTM’s seventh MX2 champion since 2004 and their sixth since 2008 with the 250 SX-F and he was the first from Latvia.
Celebrations had started after the first moto and a deserted circuit rang out to dance tunes late Sunday night as the KTM crew partied for the second Sunday in succession.
Back in the gate and several athletes were eying late glory. Positive signs for Team USA lay through Thomas Covington putting together two good starts and showing his strong turn of speed and deft throttle control in damp and wet conditions to collect his second overall win of the season. He had little answer to surprising Australian Hunter Lawrence in the second moto; the youngster following up his Saturday Pole Position with another podium appearance but refusing to answer questions on his future and a solid link to Honda for 2018 [in MX2] before the USA beckons with GEICO in ’19. Another Aussie, fill-in rider Jed Beaton, had a great day with a 3-4 to grab the last rostrum slot ahead of Jonass and Seewer. Dutch Grand Prix winner Jorge Prado admitted the mud was not yet his strongest terrain and was eighth overall.
MXGP was unsurprisingly in the hands of Jeffrey Herlings. The Dutchman went 3-1 with a rare holeshot in the second moto. That’s five out of six for the former MX2 world champion and could have been a perfect half-dozen (plus Ironman) if his chain had not lapsed while cutting to the front in Sweden last month.
MXGP witnessed a brace of duels that kept the audience fixed through the dodgy climate. In the first race Monster Energy Yamaha’s Romain Febvre noisily stalked HRC’s Tim Gajser, accompanied by the roar of the partisan masses. The Frenchman was competing at the site of his first GP win in 2015 and was clearly psyched for the tussle. Gajser was resolute however and made hay through the backmarkers sliding in and out of lines to deny the French fancy. Both protagonists were sluggish out of the start in the second moto, Febvre especially, with the Yamaha man almost mid-pack and having to work hard to find his way to fourth and just missed the podium.
Their places as leaders taken by Herlings and an excellent Rockstar Energy IceOne Husqvarna’s Max Anstie in the second moto. The Brit excelled on the technical dirt and changed his lines and tact to keep a closely pursuing Herlings at bay. When the inevitable move came, Anstie hung on and applied pressure. Only in the final two laps did Herlings find a slightly cleaner and quicker route through the backmarkers and wrap his 12th chequered flag—the highest moto win total in the class.
Praise must go to the club and organisers for maintaining the track in the best way possible and even taking steps with construction of the site to cope with the weather. Crashes, mistakes, near misses, wild lines, and alternative routes in the worse of the weather were sideshow elements to a small collective of riders that really showed their stock in a difficult final challenge for MXGP.
The most extreme and captivating example arrived courtesy of the last decider in WMX as the girls dealt with the wettest and slipperiest of Villars on Saturday afternoon and first-thing Sunday morning.
Kiara Fontanesi earned her fifth world title in dramatic circumstances that summed up a crazy and unpredictable season. The Italian was one of four riders divided by just five points coming to France. Courtney Duncan should have won the opening race but half a lap from the flag edged off track to avoid a melee of riders stuck at the peak of the longest and steepest uphill climb and crashed. Fontanesi followed and dodged the mess by veering into the same space as Duncan but made it through. Livia Lancelot had fallen at the bottom of the hill. Fontanesi’s win was later disputed by Van de Ven and watched in interest by
Duncan, who eventually made it home in sixth. Race Direction changed the results based on a belated red flag and the listing had Duncan back at the top but they later reinstated the original standing. It meant that New Zealander had been undone by events out of her control for the second year in a row.
She took out her frustrations in an even boggier second moto (and on a shortened track without the troublesome ascent) that was more about fortune and survival than skill. When second placed Nancy Van de Ven became stuck on a hill with two laps to go Fontanesi’s steady third position turned out to be decisive to the tune of a single point. The whole affair was tense, emotional, impossible to call and utterly gripping. Sympathy fell for Van de Ven who needed assistance to finally reach the line (classifying three laps down on Duncan), Duncan for another near miss, and Lancelot who was the runner-up at her home round and her final Grand Prix before moving into team management. It was Fontanesi with the number one plate however and the best of the three Yamaha’s when it really counted and a cool head was the most profitable attribute.
EMX250—the last rung on the European Championship ladder to Grand Prix—was owned by Italian Morgan Lesiardo, who became the fifth Italian title winner this year after Cairoli, Fontanesi, 125cc World Champion Gianluca Facchetti, and EMX150 Honda conqueror Andrea Adamo.
After three weekends in a row the majority of the MXGP paddock head into the off-season. A hefty selection (although not Jonass who declined to represent Team Latvia) will look toward Matterley Basin in two weeks time for the 71st Motocross of Nations in the UK.
FIM MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Round 19 – MXGP of Pays de Montbéliard – Villars sous Ecot
MXGP
OVERALL FINISH | RIDER | RACE 1 POINTS | RACE 2 POINTS | BIKE |
1st | Jeffrey Herlings | 20 | 25 | KTM |
2nd | Tim Gajser | 25 | 20 | Honda |
3rd | Max Anstie | 18 | 22 | Husqvarna |
4th | Romain Febvre | 22 | 18 | Yamaha |
5th | Gautier Paulin | 16 | 15 | Husqvarna |
6th | Kevin Strijbos | 15 | 13 | Suzuki |
7th | Arnaud Tonus | 11 | 16 | Yamaha |
8th | Jeremy Van Horebeek | 13 | 14 | Yamaha |
9th | Glenn Coldenhoff | 14 | 12 | KTM |
10th | Shaun Simpson | 6 | 10 | Yamaha |
11th | Maximilian Nagl | 7 | 9 | Husqvarna |
12th | Alessandro Lupino | 8 | 8 | Honda |
13th | Tanel Leok | 4 | 11 | Husqvarna |
14th | Rui Goncalves | 5 | 7 | Husqvarna |
15th | Antonio Cairoli | 12 | 0 | KTM |
16th | Evgeny Bobryshev | 10 | 0 | Honda |
17th | Maxime Desprey | 9 | 0 | Kawasaki |
18th | Damon Graulus | 1 | 6 | Honda |
19th | Nicolas Dercourt | 2 | 5 | Yamaha |
20th | Jason Clermont | 0 | 4 | Kawasaki |
MX2
OVERALL FINISH | RIDER | RACE 1 POINTS | RACE 2 POINTS | BIKE |
1st | Thomas Covington | 25 | 22 | Husqvarna |
2nd | Hunter Lawrence | 18 | 25 | Suzuki |
3rd | Jed Beaton | 20 | 18 | Honda |
4th | Jeremy Seewer | 22 | 16 | Suzuki |
5th | Pauls Jonass | 16 | 20 | KTM |
6th | Thomas Kjer Olsen | 14 | 9 | Husqvarna |
7th | Brian Bogers | 6 | 15 | KTM |
8th | Jorge Prado Garcia | 7 | 14 | KTM |
9th | Darian Sanayei | 10 | 10 | Kawasaki |
10th | Alvin Östlund | 12 | 8 | Yamaha |
11th | Ben Watson | 13 | 6 | KTM |
12th | Calvin Vlaanderen | 5 | 11 | KTM |
13th | Julien Lieber | 15 | 0 | KTM |
14th | Davy Pootjes | 1 | 13 | KTM |
15th | Magne Klingsheim | 11 | 2 | Kawasaki |
16th | Stephen Rubini | 0 | 12 | Kawasaki |
17th | Anton Gole | 9 | 3 | TM |
18th | Conrad Mewse | 4 | 5 | Husqvarna |
19th | Nathan Renkens | 8 | 0 | KTM |
20th | Henry Jacobi | 0 | 7 | Husqvarna |
WMX
OVERALL FINISH | RIDER | RACE 1 POINTS | RACE 2 POINTS | BIKE |
1st | Kiara Fontanesi | 25 | 20 | Yamaha |
2nd | Livia Lancelot | 20 | 22 | Kawasaki |
3rd | Courtney Duncan | 15 | 25 | Yamaha |
4th | Nancy Van De Ven | 22 | 16 | Yamaha |
5th | Larissa Papenmeier | 16 | 18 | Suzuki |
6th | Amandine Verstappen | 18 | 15 | KTM |
7th | Virginie Germond | 11 | 13 | Yamaha |
8th | Mathilde Martinez | 9 | 14 | Husqvarna |
9th | Justine Charroux | 12 | 9 | Yamaha |
10th | Anne Borchers | 5 | 11 | Suzuki |
EMX 250
OVERALL FINISH | RIDER | RACE 1 POINTS | RACE 2 POINTS | BIKE |
1st | James Dunn | 22 | 20 | KTM |
2nd | Simone Zecchina | 16 | 22 | Yamaha |
3rd | Anthony Bourdon | 9 | 25 | Husqvarna |
4th | Tristan Charboneau | 25 | 8 | Kawasaki |
5th | Ruben Fernandez | 20 | 11 | Kawasaki |
6th | Morgan Lesiardo | 8 | 18 | Kawasaki |
7th | Tom Koch | 6 | 16 | KTM |
8th | Karlis Sabulis | 12 | 9 | Yamaha |
9th | Pierre Goupillon | 15 | 5 | KTM |
10th | Josh Spinks | 18 | 2 | KTM |
MXGP Championship Standings
STANDING | RIDER | POINTS |
1st | Antonio Cairoli | 722 |
2nd | Jeffrey Herlings | 672 |
3rd | Gautier Paulin | 602 |
4th | Clement Desalle | 544 |
5th | Tim Gajser | 530 |
6th | Romain Febvre | 519 |
7th | Jeremy Van Horebeek | 443 |
8th | Max Nagl | 439 |
9th | Max Anstie | 436 |
10th | Glenn Coldenhoff | 424 |
MX2 Championship Standings
STANDING | RIDER | POINTS |
1st | Pauls Jonass | 771 |
2nd | Jeremy Seewer | 732 |
3rd | Thomas Kjer Olsen | 579 |
4th | Thomas Covington | 532 |
5th | Benoit Paturel | 504 |
6th | Julien Lieber | 490 |
7th | Jorge Prado | 460 |
8th | Brian Bogers | 407 |
9th | Hunter Lawrence | 395 |
10th | Brent Van doninck | 309 |
WMX Championship Standings
STANDING | RIDER | POINTS |
1st | Kiara Fontanesi | 233 |
2nd | Livia Lancelot | 232 |
3rd | Courtney Duncan | 231 |
4th | Nancy Van De Ven | 231 |
5th | Larissa Papenmeier | 194 |
6th | Amandine Verstappen | 184 |
7th | Nicky van Wordragen | 119 |
8th | Francesca Nocera | 95 |
9th | Virginie Germond | 80 |
10th | Shana van der Vlist | 89 |
EMX250 Championship Standings
STANDING | RIDER | POINTS |
1st | Morgan Lesiardo | 294 |
2nd | Simone Furlotti | 242 |
3rd | Ruben Fernandez | 223 |
4th | Alberto Forato | 205 |
5th | Tristan Charboneau | 192 |
6th | Marshel Weltin | 180 |
7th | Jago Geerts | 171 |
8th | Ken Bengtson | 170 |
9th | Mathys Boisrame | 167 |
10th | Pierre Goupillon | 140 |