MXGP Race Reports

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MXGP of Pietramurata Report

Published Wednesday, 27th October, 2021

A big day of racing in Pietramurata saw Antonio Cairoli claim victory in Round 15 of the season.

With a big lead heading into this round of 24-points, Jeffrey Herlings looked comfortable as he aimed to extend the gap at the top.

But the Dutchman’s day went the complete opposite and he now holds just a one-point lead over Romain Febvre.

MXGP Race 1

It was Jorge Prado who got the Fox Holeshot in the first race of the day as he led away Tim Gajser and Romain Febvre from the start.

Jeffrey Herlings had the worst possible start. The KTM rider fell down at the first corner and did enough damage to his bike to force him to miss the remainder of the race and sacrifice a big championship lead.

Prado was quickly passed by both Gajser and Febvre as the pair saw an opportunity to close in on Herlings’ big championship lead. The pair then started to battle it out briefly with the gap coming to less than a second but Gajser quickly built up a gap again to stop the Frenchman’s attack.

Behind the two frontrunner Antonio Cairoli was on a charge as he passed Jeremy Seewer for fourth and quickly passed Prado for third.

Seewer also looked to get past Prado’s KTM and made a number of overtaking moves but couldn’t pull any of them off until he finally got a pass done with three laps to go.

In the final stages of the race Gajser started to come under intense pressure from Febvre once again. With two laps remaining the Frenchman finally made his move into the lead work and was able to finish the race in first ahead of Gajser and Cairoli.

Seewer crossed the line in fourth ahead of Prado and Ben Watson.

Glenn Coldenhoff put his Yamaha in seventh with just over two seconds separating him and Thomas Kjer Olsen in eighth.

Henry Jacobi and Jeremy Van Horebeek rounded out the top-ten.

MXGP Race 2

Cairoli took the Fox Holeshot at the beginning of the second and final race of the day, the Italian led with Seewer and Prado behind him.

There was a big battle going on for the top spots in the race as Herlings and Gajser made their way through the pack as the former looked to make up for his crash in Race One.

But Herlings’ day continued to get worse as he crashed again which put him under pressure from Febvre who had closed right up to the KTM.

Gajser then managed to move up into third with a good move on Coldenhoff. The HRC rider tried to catch up with Seewer for second but ran out of time at the end.

Cairoli too a strong win in the second race to grab the overall victory, Seewer crossed the line second with Gajser third.

Herlings had a good recovery to end Race 2 fourth but told MXGP after the race it was “devastating” to lose such a big lead in the championship.

Febvre ended the race in fifth ahead of Coldenhoff and Kjer Olsen.

Brian Bogers finished in eighth ahead of Watson and Pauls Jonass in ninth and tenth.