The first racing day came to an end in the sands of Vantaa, the Finnish GP, 14th round of 19 in the 2023 FIM Motocross World Championship series.
The 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 qualifying races 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 qualifying races, the Paddock Show was the opportunity for the crowd to see the winners of the 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 qualifying race started from the best of ways for Prado, who took the best start of the pack to lead the race after the first corner.
Frenchman Febvre managed to get himself quickly up to second 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 and Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team’s Jeremy Seewer for most of the race to finish at a good third place, bouncing back from Lommel.
For Seewer, things seemed to go similarly to Fernandez to finish 4th but his team-mate 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 fourth place from Seewer who finished fifth 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 two of 13 to gain a position and follow each other until the end.
The startling Van Horebeek keeps on impressing with an excellent sixth place in front of the other great performer Paturel seventh. Vlaanderen finished eighth in front of Forato in ninth.
Things for Gajser began really well as he took a good start going 5th on the turn of lap one 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 one point was the returning champion Herlings who had to battle after an average start in 13th on the turn of lap one. 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 nine, 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!”
Photo courtesy GasGas
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RESULTS AND STANDINGS:
MXGP – Qualifying Race – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), 24:46.523; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:05.282; 3. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:11.012; 4. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Yamaha), +0:15.646; 5. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Yamaha), +0:17.046; 6. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Honda), +0:33.410; 7. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:35.206; 8. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:36.990; 9. Alberto Forato (ITA, KTM), +0:40.912; 10. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:44.678
MXGP – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 675 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 575 p.; 3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, YAM), 512 p.; 4. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 489 p.; 5. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, YAM), 487 p.; 6. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 447 p.; 7. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 387 p.; 8. Alberto Forato (ITA, KTM), 333 p.; 9. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 276 p.; 10. Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, GAS), 203 p
MX2 – Qualifying Race – Top 10 Classification:
1. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), 24:59.799; 2. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:05.203; 3. Jago Geerts (BEL, Yamaha), +0:30.843; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:32.077; 5. Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +0:35.343; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:39.409; 7. Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), +0:41.765; 8. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Honda), +0:44.774; 9. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Kawasaki), +0:45.102; 10. Emil Weckman (FIN, Honda), +0:58.304
MX2 – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 569 points; 2. Jago Geerts (BEL, YAM), 559 p.; 3. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 501 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 494 p.; 5. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 462 p.; 6. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 448 p.; 7. Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, HUS), 433 p.; 8. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 425 p.; 9. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, KAW), 363 p.; 10. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), 253 p