Lucas Coenen (MXGP) & Valerio Lata (MX2) Take MXGP of Germany Qualifying Race Wins

MXGP

The practice sessions early in the day saw two different factory teams taking first and second on the timesheets on each occasion. First it was Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, with Pauls Jonass ahead of Febvre in Free Practice, but in Time Practice it was the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing pairing of Herlings and Coenen, with the Dutchman claiming first gate pick in front of the Belgian, as Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP rider Calvin Vlaanderen was third quickest.

Also fast throughout practice was TEM JP253 KTM Racing Team’s privateer hero Jan Pancar, and the Slovenian bolted out of the gate in the Qualifying Race to lead across the Fox Holeshot line, although Coenen shot past him to lead up Liqui Moly mountain, followed quickly by Herlings as the orange bikes ran 1-2-3 ahead of the battling Isak Gifting, who pitted his JK Racing Yamaha against Febvre, Jonass, and Honda HRC’s Ruben Fernandez!

The two “RF”s got past the Swede before the end of the first full lap, but Jonass could not go with them. Vlaanderen battled with his teammate Maxime Renaux for eighth place, and the South African-born Dutchman got ahead on lap three. The Sarholz KTM of Noah Ludwig got the local fans cheering by holding onto the final points scoring position of tenth place for most of the race! Ultimately, he was passed with two laps to go by the Aruba.it Ducati Factory MX Team machine of Jeremy Seewer.

Coenen built a lead of several seconds over Herlings, but Febvre took until lap seven to get past a stubborn Pancar. Two laps later still, Jonass passed Gifting for sixth, but couldn’t catch Fernandez for fifth, leaving them both in those positions to the flag.

The factory Yamaha battle quickly caught up to Gifting, and they both went through on lap ten, with Renaux finding a nice line in the new wave section to also pass Vlaanderen for seventh, which he kept to the finish. Gifting lost ninth to Seewer on the very last corner as the Swiss veteran pulled a ragged pass in front of Pit Lane!

Pancar managed his best ever Qualifying Race result with a fine fourth position, as Febvre closed in on Herlings, but couldn’t find his way past as “The Bullet” started to reel in Coenen! The gap at the finish line was just over a second, leaving many to wonder if the real Jeffrey Herlings is ready to stand up tomorrow!

Coenen chipped two more points away from Febvre’s Championship lead, however, and that leaves the gap at 45. The Frenchman will charge again tomorrow, but this weekend might not be the two-horse race we have seen recently! It’s gonna be a good one!

Honestly, I struggled with arm pump—I don’t know how or why. Maybe it’s just Saturday and it’ll be better tomorrow. I had a good start, messed it up a little after the gate, but I’ll fix that. Then I just did my laps and tried to control the arm pump. I didn’t know Jeffrey (Herlings) was that close until I saw ‘84 +0’ on the pit board—I was like, ‘He’s right there!’ So I had to nail that last corner. It was a good qualifying race—now we focus on tomorrow’s two races.

MX2

Although Sacha Coenen was fastest in Free Practice, it was reigning World Champion Kay de Wolf who answered any doubts about his fitness by topping the tables in Time Practice for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, even though Coenen was only 17 thousandths of a second off with his last flying lap! Home favourite Simon Laengenfelder worked his way into third place, and the scene was set for the afternoon!

Sadly for Honda HRC, Ferruccio Zanchi sustained a knee injury in attempting a difficult double jump in Free Practice, and will miss tomorrow’s GP. We wish him the best in his recovery.

Zanchi’s teammate, Valerio Lata, was just behind Laengenfelder in Time Practice, and caught some serious drive down the start straight in the Qualifying Race, lifting his front wheel spectacularly! The young Italian was still able to hold the gas on down the hill into turn one, narrowly beating Coenen to the Holeshot, then defending the inside line from the young Belgian as they leapt into turn two!

Laengenfelder briefly claimed second position until Coenen snatched it back with the blast across the start straight, while Adamo and the Gabriel SS24 KTM Factory Juniors rider Oriol Oliver were snapping at their heels. Oliver lost three places with a mistake just after the finish line, and Adamo also pulled past Laengenfelder in the same section to take third, followed quickly by Kawasaki Racing Team MX2 pilot Mathis Valin!

De Wolf, meanwhile, had not got away well, and had to fight with Oliver to claim sixth at the end of the first full lap. There was then an all-Spanish battle with Monster Energy Triumph Racing star Guillem Farres getting past Oliver on lap two.

Lap four saw a big mistake for De Wolf, washing the front wheel out in an uphill corner and hitting the ground hard, ultimately dropping him to fifteenth position, which he was not able to move forward from. Once more, the reigning World Champion heads into Sunday’s GP races on the back foot.

Farres’ teammate Camden McLellan got stuck into a race-long battle with Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 rider Thibault Benistant, with the South African ending up tenth in the race as the Frenchman was able to get past Farres for eighth with two laps to go!

Oliver had passed his countryman for sixth on lap nine, but Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Liam Everts had been working forward from an average start, and forced past Oliver for sixth on the final lap!

The loudest cheer of the day, however, was inevitably reserved for Laengenfelder, as he wore down Valin to make a stunning pass on the French rookie over the big uphill triple jump! That was for fourth position, and as far as he would get, losing just a single point to Adamo to leave the gap between them at just ten points! De Wolf’s no-score puts him 32 points behind the German, who stopped after the flag to acknowledge the boisterous support from the hillsides!

Coenen took second place in a Qualifying Race for the fourth time this season, and that’s enough to put him past Benistant for fifth in the Championship, 34 points behind Everts.

The day belonged to Valerio Lata, however, as the new Italian kid on the block put in amazing lap times at the start of the race to build a gap, then showed confidence beyond his years to hold a winning margin of just under four seconds, moving himself up to eighth in the Championship in the process!

This means that the entire top nine in the series has taken a chequered flag first on either a Saturday or Sunday this season! Motocross fans couldn’t wish for a more wide-open field to pick a winner from, and it should make tomorrow’s races a wild ride!

Make sure you tune in for the Liqui Moly MXGP of Germany’s main GP races tomorrow, it should be juicier than the choicest of bratwursts served up trackside! Not to be missed!

I don’t know the words, it’s unbelievable. My first race win! I had a perfect start, a perfect race, and yeah, I’m so happy. I had a good feeling with the bike, with the track, with the team. Thank you so much everyone—see you tomorrow!