MXGP Race Reports

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MXGP of Latvia Report

Published Sunday, 8th August, 2021

The fourth and final round of a quadruple header stint in the MXGP saw the series head to Latvia for Round 7 of the 2021 campaign.

After this weekend, the riders will have time to rest up with a four-week break over the month of August, before MXGP returns at the beginning of September.

After a tough couple of rounds previous to the GP of Latvia, it was championship leader Tim Gajser who bounced back and took the spoils with a 2-2 result, enough to seal him the overall victory and extend his championship lead to 13 points.

MXGP Race 1

Jeffrey Herlings took the Fox Holeshot in the first race of the weekend, the Dutchman edged out teammate Jorge Prado and Yamaha’s Glenn Coldenhoff at the beginning and instantly began to bridge a gap out in front.

Behind the KTM rider it was still a battle for the remaining positions in the top-three, with Gajser making moves into second place, all the while Prado, Coldenhoff and Antonio Cairoli continued to battle for third.

Cairoli then put on a charge as the race progressed, passing both Coldenhoff and then Prado in quick succession, with the latter coming under intense pressure from Romain Febvre.

At the top it was Herlings who took a dominant Race 1 win, with no answer from Gajser and Cairoli who rounded out the top three.

Prado crossed the line in fourth, and a late battle at the end behind the Spaniard saw Febvre end up fifth, home-hero Pauls Jonass sixth and Coldenhoff could only manage seventh.

The final top-ten finishers were Alessandro Lupino, Jeremy Seewer and Brian Bogers.

MXGP Race 2

The Fox Holeshot honours in the second and final race of the day went the way of Febvre who led the pack away ahead of Prado and Herlings.

Race one’s third-place finisher Cairoli then crashed out of fourth place but was able to get back on his KTM to remain inside the top-ten, albeit with a recovery ride on his hands.

Just two laps later the race leader Febvre fell down, which handed Prado the lead of the race and no doubt left Febvre ruing his mistake.

The battle at the front began to heat up in the final moments of the race, as Herlings set his sights on the victory and closed a 2.6s gap to just 0.789s.

Just as it looked like the Dutchman would take the lead off Prado’s hands, he fell down and dropped to fourth place, another instance of tough luck for Herlings this year.

This meant Prado went on to take victory by 7.092s, with Gajser and Febvre second and third in the race.

Herlings managed to hold on to fourth, with GASGAS rider Bogus sealing a great fifth place finish ahead of Cairoli and Seewer.

Thomas Kjer Olsen finished just two seconds behind Seewer in eighth, Lupino and Ben Watson ended ninth and tenth.