It was another case of ups for the respective championship leaders and downs for Kiwi hero Ben Townley in Italy at the weekend.

Temperatures soared well above 30 degrees Celsius as thousands of passionate fans packed into the venue at Mantova to watch the best riders in the world go head to head for glory at round 12 of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the Italian GP, at the weekend.

Mantova was a brutal beast to tame as the riders battled both the extreme warmth and the savage condition of the unpredictable sand surface, which was taken in the strides of the current red plate holders, Honda Gariboldi’s Tim Gajser and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings, who both thrilled fans with their exceptional performances.

It wasn’t such a great weekend for Bay of Plenty man Townley (pictured above), who could not finish either MXGP race.

The New Zealander showed good speed on Saturday to recover from a first corner crash – where he was nudged to the ground – to fire back to 12th position in the qualification race.

Unfortunately for Townley, he crashed in the same way on the first corner in the first dash of 30 minutes and two laps after contact with a rival. The incident kicked-off another charge that sadly came to an end with a second spill, after failing to avoid a downed rider, and his eventual retirement in with a sore knee.

His second race was ruined on the second lap when he clipped Russian rider Evgeny Bobryshev who had made a mistake ahead of him and again he had to retrieve his motorcycle and was again out of the running.

Townley has dropped from 15th to 16th in the standings in a frustrating return to the top level so far.

Meanwhile, focus at the front of the field was on the Slovenia MXGP ‘rookie’ Gajser.

Even though Gajser had a 74-point lead in the MXGP class heading into the weekend, he’s not the sort of guy that will go out and just race for points. He wants to be the fastest rider on the track each and every time he swings his leg over the machine.

“It was one of the toughest races of my career” Gajser said at the end of the day, “Tony (Cairoli) rode really good in the second race, it was good to see him ride so fast, but I was happy to pass him at the end of the race a make a slight gap for the finish.”

Gajser now leads the championship by 92 points

French rider Gautier Paulin put in two fierce rides for second overall which is his best overall finish of the season, while Belgium’s Clement Desalle also had his best result of the year with a second place finish in race one and fourth in race two to land on the box, in third, for the first time this season.

Italian multi-time former world champion Cairoli battled through the soreness of an injured wrist to put on an excellent show for the fans, and finish fourth overall. He has also moved up into second place in the championship standings with a 32 point lead over the defending champion Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing’s Romain Febvre, who has now missed the last two rounds due to a concussion but should return to action at the next round which will take place at the end of July in the Czech Republic.

Febvre’s team-mate, Belgian Jeremy Van Horebeek, rounded out the top five in MXGP, finishing ahead of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Glenn Coldenhoff and the poleman, Team HRC’s Bobryshev.

MX2 CLASS

The speed and finesse Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings has in the sand is almost indescribable.

It’s more of a seeing is believing type of thing, but, in effort to try and put his incredible speed into perspective, Herling’s lap time in race one was 1:53.029 while Tim Gajser’s, in the first MXGP race, was 1:54.866.

While you could argue that the track is rougher for the MXGP guys, Herlings went out in race two and nailed a lap of 1:54.455 which is still faster than the best time in MXGP race one.

Dutch rider Brian Bogers proved himself at the weekend.

Bogers hit a bunch of milestones with a career best race finish of second place in the opening race, and a third place in race two, which landed him on the second step of the podium. Up until the weekend, Bogers hadn’t even cracked the top five, so it was a huge achievement for the Dutchman who was incredibly emotional at the end of the day when he dedicated his performance to his grandma who recently passed away.

Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Dylan Ferrandis ate a lot of sand at the weekend. In race one, he crashed three times in the first eight laps but managed to regroup for third, which was an amazing accomplishment and was proof that his speed was there. Race two wasn’t much cleaner either, but his hard charging never give up attitude saw him finish sixth which landed him on the third step of the podium.

The next round of the FIM Motocross World Championship will take place in Loket, Czech Republic, on July 24.

Photo by Ray Archer

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RESULTS & STANDINGS:

MXGP Race 1 Top Ten:

1. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 35:01.739; 2. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:04.460; 3. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Honda), +0:07.423; 4. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Husqvarna), +0:11.147; 5. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +0:16.639; 6. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:25.874; 7. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:33.524; 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), +0:38.665; 9. Valentin Guillod (SUI, Yamaha), +0:44.531; 10. Jose Butron (ESP, KTM), +0:48.997.

MXGP Race 2 Top Ten:

1. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 35:17.922; 2. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Honda), +0:09.544; 3. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:17.480; 4. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:25.145; 5. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), +0:33.911; 6. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:37.557; 7. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +0:38.142; 8. Valentin Guillod (SUI, Yamaha), +0:54.421; 9. Jose Butron (ESP, KTM), +0:59.148; 10. Jordi Tixier (FRA, Kawasaki), +1:02.868.

MXGP Overall Top Ten:

1. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 50 points; 2. Gautier Paulin (FRA, HON), 42 p.; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, KAW), 40 p.; 4. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 35 p.; 5. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 30 p.; 6. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), 29 p.; 7. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 29 p.; 8. Valentin Guillod (SUI, YAM), 25 p.; 9. Jose Butron (ESP, KTM), 23 p.; 10. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HUS), 23 p.

MXGP Championship Top Ten:

1. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 532 points; 2. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 440 p.; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, YAM), 408 p.; 4. Maximilian Nagl (GER, HUS), 401 p.; 5. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, HON), 396 p.; 6. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, YAM), 351 p.; 7. Valentin Guillod (SUI, YAM), 267 p.; 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), 230 p.; 9. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), 212 p.; 10. Clement Desalle (BEL, KAW), 210 p.

MX2 Race 1 Top Ten:

1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 34:51.899; 2. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), +0:29.676; 3. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:35.149; 4. Thomas Covington (USA, Husqvarna), +0:37.324; 5. Max Anstie (GBR, Husqvarna), +0:48.411; 6. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), +0:48.831; 7. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:55.552; 8. Davy Pootjes (NED, KTM), +1:01.851; 9. Adam Sterry (GBR, KTM), +1:05.124; 10. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +1:07.501.

MX2 Race 2 Top Ten:

1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 35:08.731; 2. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +1:13.556; 3. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), +1:17.594; 4. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +1:20.819; 5. Thomas Covington (USA, Husqvarna), +1:27.830; 6. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA, Kawasaki), +1:29.220; 7. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), +1:29.805; 8. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, Yamaha), +1:35.366; 9. Conrad Mewse (GBR, Husqvarna), +1:46.304; 10. Petar Petrov (BUL, Kawasaki), +1:52.560.

MX2 Overall Top Ten:

1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 50 points; 2. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), 42 p.; 3. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA, KAW), 35 p.; 4. Thomas Covington (USA, HUS), 34 p.; 5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 33 p.; 6. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 32 p.; 7. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), 29 p.; 8. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, YAM), 22 p.; 9. Michele Cervellin (ITA, HON), 19 p.; 10. Conrad Mewse (GBR, HUS), 17 p.

MX2 Championship Top Ten:

1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 597 points; 2. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, SUZ), 428 p.; 3. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 403 p.; 4. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 325 p.; 5. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, YAM), 320 p.; 6. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA, KAW), 308 p.; 7. Max Anstie (GBR, HUS), 274 p.; 8. Petar Petrov (BUL, KAW), 253 p.; 9. Samuele Bernardini (ITA, TM), 253 p.; 10. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, KAW), 219 p.