The first racing day came to an end in the sands of Vantaa. The RAM Qualifying Races kick-started the MXGP of Finland and we saw a full house for Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing with Jorge Prado and Simon Laengenfelder win their respective RAM Qualifying Race from start to finish.
Following a heavy rain between the time practice and the RAM Qualifying Races, the track made it difficult to overtake making it vital to get a great start. Riders showed a lot of qualities to offer a great show in these conditions for all the Finnish fans present at the Lavanko track.
Following the RAM Qualifying Races, the Paddock Show was the opportunity for the crowd to see the winners of the RAM Qualification Races and the MX2 Red Plate Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Andrea Adamo along with special guests Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings, Kawasaki Racing Team’s Romain Febvre and Mitch Evans and home heroes Team Ship To Cycle Honda SR Motoblouz’s Emil Weckman, Jere Havisto and Kim Savasta.
The MXGP RAM Qualifying Race started from the best of ways for Jorge Prado who took the best start of the pack to lead the race after the first corner. Romain Febvre managed to get himself quickly up to 2nd within the first lap and tried to push to get closer to Prado the whole race. Febvre never got close enough to try a move and Prado rode solidly stayed at the lead until the end to extend his lead in the Championship to 100 points on Febvre who finished 2nd.
Riding on his own throughout the whole race in 3rd position was Team HRC’s Rubén Fernández who kept a strong pace. The Spaniard could not get close to Febvre but kept a comfortable gap between him andMonster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team’s Jeremy Seewer for most of the race to finish at a good 3rd place, bouncing back from Lommel. For Seewer, things seemed to go similarly to Fernandez to finish 4th but his teammate Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team’s Glenn Coldenhoff had other plans. Coldenhoff meticulously closed the gap lap after lap to get to touching distance with Seewer on the very last lap. Seewer went wide on one of the last corners which let the window open to Coldenhoff to get on the inside and steal the 4th place to Seewer who finished 5th in the end.
Behind them four riders experienced the same kind of race with Standing Construct Honda MXGP’s Jeremy Van Horebeek, De Baets Yamaha MX-Team’s Benoit Paturel, Team Gebben Van Venroy Yamaha Racing’s Calvin Vlaanderen and SM Action Racing Team Yuasa Battery MXGP’s Alberto Forato who all benefitted from Team HRC’s Tim Gajser’s bike issue on lap 2 of 13 to gain a position and follow each other until the end. The startling Van Horebeek keeps on impressing with an excellent 6th place in front of the other great performer Paturel 7th. Vlaanderen finished 8th in front of Forato 9th.
Things for Gajser began really well as he took a good start going 5th on the turn of lap 1 but got a bike problem that took him a while to restart and unfortunately moved down to 16th. Gajser still managed a good comeback to finish 12th in the end.
Closing the top 10 and gaining 1 point was the returning champion Herlings who had to battle after an average start in 13th on the turn of lap 1. On this difficult track, it took Herlings few laps behind a good JWR Honda Racing’s Alvin Östlund to be able to make a pass. Eventually on lap 9, Herlings made a forceful move after a jump to get on the inside of Ostlund and moved up to 10th. Ostlund could not defend on Herlings’ attack and had to settle for the 11th.
Jorge Prado: “Today the start was important and I got a really good jump out of the gate. I got some issues with the goggles so hopefully we’ll find the solution to get a better visibility. Hopefully tomorrow will be sunnier but it was fun, the track was fun to ride so it was perfect and I’m very happy with the win!”
Simon Laegenfelder took a blistering start to get himself in front from the get-go and kept a good pace upfront to never be worried by other riders. The German won the perfect race leading from start to finish. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Sacha Coenen also had a great start and confirmed his season’s best finish in Lommel as the 16-year-old Belgian had a near perfect race to go 2nd from the start and ride all the race in that position setting the fastest lap of the race along the way. S.Coenen finished 2nd just 6 seconds behind Laengenfelder and 25 seconds in front of Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 Team’s Jago Geerts.
Geerts showed again all his determination after not the best start. 6th on the turn of the first lap, the Belgian pushed hard behind Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Liam Everts who was holding his ground until lap 4 of 13 when he lost his drive and seemed to be slowing down, losing 3 positions in total for a moment. Geerts kept charging forward overtaking WZ Racing Team’s Oriol Oliver and his teammate Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 Team’s Rick Elzinga over the course of two laps to finish 3rd in the end.
Everts quickly recovered his flow and speed to get back up to 6th on the same lap and even managed to pass Oliver on lap 9 to finish 4th while Oliver faded towards the end of the race to finish 7th, equalling his season’s best finish. Elzinga is feeling better and better at the moment as he often rides at the front. He got overtaken on the last lap by Everts but he still finished at an encouraging 5th place.
Andrea Adamo got an average start finding himself 7th behind his first rival in the Championship Geerts. Adamo still 7th pushed and got close to Geerts first and then his teammate Everts from lap 4 but completely stall on lap 7 to lose a position to Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Lucas Coenen. Eventually it was L.Coenen’s turn to get issues as he fell and looked to have hurt his rib making him retiring of the race in the end. Adamo capitalised on that and managed to pass Oliver on lap 10 to finish 6th.
It was a great race for JM Honda Racing’s Camden Mc Lellan who finished where he started in 8th place. Again, handicapped by his poor start F&H Kawasaki Racing Team’s Kevin Horgmo had to employ all his skills to charge from the 15th place on lap 1 to get to 9th in the end. Emil Weckman waited to compete on home soil to finally get his first top 10 in RAM Qualifying Race. The Finnish rider managed to get 10th on the turn of lap 1 and held his rank very well only to get overtaken by a determined Horgmo on lap 6. Weckman didn’t give up and kept a good pace benefitting from L.Coenen’s retirement to move back up to 10th and finish there.
Simon Laengenfelder: “I was happy after that start because when you are in the first lap chaos in the mid-pack it’s never easy so I definitely made my life easier. I’m now looking forward to go racing tomorrow”
