🇸🇪 MXGP of Sweden | Uddevalla – Round 15: QUALIFYING & results!

QUALIFYING

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MXGP

The Free Practice session looked to be going the way of Tim Gajser until a trademark flying final lap from Jeffrey Herlings gave the Dutchman the top time by nearly a second.  Home hero Isak Gifting raised the hopes of his fans with the third best time on his JK Racing Yamaha!

Herlings was at it again in Time Practice with a last-ditch effort claiming the first gate pick by just over a third of a second from Gajser.  Kay de Wolf took third for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, followed by the second Honda HRC Petronas of Tom Vialle, with Romain Febvre in fifth.

The factory Hondas of Vialle and Herlings roared into the first corner clear of the rest, as Herlings carved inside his teammate to take the immediate lead, with Gajser and Febvre next along, followed by Gifting, who lost fifth on the second corner to Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Pauls Jonass, the Latvian looking good on his return to action following his big crash in the U.K.

Not willing to let Herlings streak away, Gajser and Febvre quickly got past Vialle on the first full lap, while the third Honda HRC Petronas of Ruben Fernandez also got past Gifting in a right-handed hairpin corner. De Wolf was chasing the Swede with Andrea Adamo in ninth. The Italian is the only Red Bull KTM Factory Racing man in the class this weekend, as former series leader Lucas Coenen is still too injured to race.

On lap four, De Wolf closed on Gifting, but landed short on a tabletop, bouncing sideways and sliding out on landing, bizarrely catching Gifting’s machine to tip the Swede off the bike. Although De Wolf was able to restart quickly to finish seventh, a damaged off-switch hindered Gifting’s attempts to fire up the bike, and he re-joined in 24th, recovering to 20th by the finish.

Adamo was up to eighth, and would finish there. The second Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP machine of Maxime Renaux was initially ninth, ahead of the leading Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team rider Andrea Bonacorsi.  Renaux would make a small mistake with four laps to go, promoting Bonacorsi to ninth at the flag ahead of the Venrooy Racing KTM of three-time Uddevalla winner Jeremy Seewer. Renaux was frustrated to finish out of the points in 11th.

On the difficult slick surface, there weren’t any further passes in the higher order, as Gajser briefly closed on Herlings, and had Febvre close on him several times.  The leading riders were constantly fighting for traction and seemed to make mistakes whenever they got close enough to make a pass. The top three held position until the finish line, with Vialle and Fernandez making it three factory Honda riders in the top five, and Jonass matching his second-best Saturday result for the year with sixth.

Herlings’ win put him a further two ahead of the chasing Febvre, who is now 106 points behind “The Bullet”.  The start will be all-important tomorrow, and after the amazing race from Gifting last year, we know that we can never be certain of what Uddevalla will throw at us!

Jeffrey Herlings: „I just did what I had to do. The track wasn’t easy and the shadows were already quite low, but I took a really good start together with my teammate, we were first and second, and I could just do my own thing. It’s a strong way to start the weekend, so hopefully we can do the same thing tomorrow.“

Tim Gajser: „Overall, all day I’m feeling way better. The track is not the easiest, it’s quite sketchy, quite hard and slippery, and it’s not easy to ride with a 450 with so much power. I managed to take a solid start. The jump was not the best, but in the first corner I went completely inside and came out third, then I made a quick pass on Tom and I was behind Jeffrey. Myself, Jeffrey and Romain were riding kind of the same pace, and it was good. Hopefully tomorrow we can do the same.“

Romain Febvre: „I did a good job on the start, but even with that I was not at the front in the first turn. Then I managed to be third quite quickly and we were all top three together. I had some opportunities, I was close to Gajser at the beginning, but somehow I didn’t make the pass and I was just following behind. The track was really slippery, we all made mistakes out there, but I think we had a good pace overall, so hopefully tomorrow we can fight the same way and find the opportunity.“

MX2

Guillem Farres topped both the Free and Time Practice sessions to show that he was right on his normal pace, with the Honda HRC Petronas hardpack lover Valerio Lata second in the morning, but Camden McLellan slotted in behind his teammate for the second gate pick. Liam Everts was third fastest ahead of Simon Längenfelder, and the leading Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 rider Janis Reisulis.

Farres shot out of the gate in the Qualifying Race to hold the inside line to lead from the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing duo of Sacha Coenen and Längenfelder, but the orange boys were suddenly first and second as Farres overjumped into the second corner and crashed over the inside berm!

Everts and Janis Reisulis gave chase to the KTMs, while McLellan sneaked inside the first corner from a terrible gate drop to somehow emerge in fifth place!  He was suddenly the only factory Triumph in the race, however, as Farres landed on the stricken JWR Honda of Noel Nilsson, who had crashed on the downside of a jump and left the red plate holder to cartwheel over his machine!  The Spaniard was on his feet quickly, but with blood running down his face, so he was taken to the medical centre.  Although it won’t be confirmed until the morning, we believe that he will line up tomorrow after a little treatment.

McLellan made an early pass on Janis Reisulis to take fourth, while Längenfelder hassled Coenen at the front.  The German was more patient on the throttle and pulled a nice outside to inside pass to take the lead from the Belgian, who stumbled out of a corner after a defensive entry line.  The slick, stand-up style of Everts was next along, and he pulled a sweet pass on his countryman to take second on lap five.

Just before that, Karlis Reisulis was attempting to move into seventh for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2, but tripped over the Osička Racing KTM of Julius Mikula and hit the ground, the confusion also allowing Maxime Grau to move his Maddii Racing Honda ABF Italia into eighth past Lata!

McLellan and Janis Reisulis both got past Coenen on successive laps to take third and fourth, and although the Latvian would hassle the South African towards the end, they would finish in that order.  Coenen’s fifth position earned him a six-point hack into Farres’ Championship lead, cutting it down to 41 before tomorrow’s GP races.

Around five seconds behind Sacha, Dutchman Kay Karssemakers earned his best ever Qualifying Race result with sixth place for Dixon Racing Team Kawasaki, while Mikula’s seventh matched his career high, the third time he has reached this position!

Lata was able to get past Grau to claim eighth ahead of the Frenchman, while Pelle Gundersen got the many Norwegian fans in attendance to raise their voices with a first ever Qualifying Race point on his Husqvarna Scandinavia machine!

Even if Farres does line up tomorrow, he is unlikely to be at 100%, and today’s results have also decreased the margins between those battling for the medal positions in the series.  So tomorrow could see another major shake-up in this wide open and wild MX2 World Championship!

Be sure to tune in tomorrow as the cliffsides will shake again to the noise of the boisterous fans with the horned headwear!

Simon Längenfelder: „We made a change on the bike and I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but it worked out. I had a much better feeling on the bike than in the two sessions before, and it felt good out there. I took the qualifying race win, so I’m really happy and looking forward to the races.“

Source / Pictures: MXGP