MXGP Race Reports

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MXGP of Lombardia Report

Published Sunday, 7th November, 2021

In the penultimate round of the year, it was Jeffrey Herlings who got one better of his championship rivals to set up a thrilling final round of 2021.

The Dutchman couldn’t claw back any points into Febvre’s championship lead however, as the pair both scored 47 points.

The third of the championship contenders, Tim Gajser, lost ground on his two rivals with a fourth-place finish overall in Mantova.

Just three points separate championship leader Febvre from Herlings with Gajser now 15 points off the top going into the 18th and final round this week.

MXGP Race 1

At the start it was Jeremy Seewer who got off the line best and took the Fox Holeshot ahead of Romain Febvre and Jeffrey Herlings.

Febvre was eager to make a pass for the lead and he did just that early on, and Herlings also passed Seewer, but the pair collided and it took some time for them both to get back into the race.

Herlings was down the order in tenth as he looked to make a quick recovery and through the middle of the race he made no mistake in clawing his way back to the front.

Herlings hit a temporary roadblock on his charge as the Honda 114 Motorsports wildcard Ruben Fernandez was having a terrific outing and put up a great battle against the KTM rider for fourth.

As soon as Herlings dispatched of the Spaniard he quickly caught on to the back of both Cairoli and Gajser late on.

By the end of the race it was Febvre who took a well-controlled victory ahead of Herlings and Cairoli.

Fernandez crossed the line in a very impressive fourth ahead of Seewer, Jorge Prado and Thomas Kjer Olsen.

Gajser did cross the line in third but was demoted down to eighth after being deemed to have left the track and gained an advantage at the start.

Mathys Boisrame and Alessandro Lupino rounded out the top-10 in ninth and 10th.

MXGP Race 2

Jorge Prado took yet another Fox Holeshot at the start of the second race of the day and led away the pack with Febvre and Herlings behind.

Herlings took the lead early on in the race in an attempt to respond to Febvre’s Race One victory.

There was a tight battle for second as Febvre battled his way past Prado after two laps of fighting for position.

As soon as he took second, Febvre wasted no time in trying to chase down Herlings and closed the gap to just over three seconds with plenty of time left to play with.

This push for the lead seemed to fizzle out as the race progressed, Febvre seemingly happy with second place in the close championship battle.

After a slow start Gajser was quietly making his way through the pack and closed in on an intense battle for third between Prado and Cairoli.

The HRC rider was able to capitalise on this massively as he found himself in third towards the end of the race. This could be a crucial moment in Gajser’s championship hopes.

At the front it was Herlings who had dominated all race long with 19.089s separating him and Febvre in second.

Gajser crossed the line in third ahead of Cairoli and Seewer in fourth and fifth.

After running in third for much of the race, Prado could only manage sixth with Fernandez and Brian Bogers behind.

Lupino and Kjer Olsen were the last of the top-10 finishers.