Photo credits: Infront Moto Racing
Very early on we understood that the Satudray’s qualifying race will be an epic watch, since the heavy rain has turned the track into a complete mud-fest.
Both classes had the same conditions as the rain made difficult conditions already in the time practice sessions, so everyone knew what’s important this time – make a good start, or struggle the whole race.
MXGP
Glenn Coldenhoff understood the assignment and took the holeshot, edging out Romain Febvre and Lucas Coenen. Soon after that Ruben Fernandez got to fourth, which was also his first race with a new Honda HRC prototype bike. And in his first race after the injury Maxime Renaux got to fifth.
Romain knew who is behind him, reacted quickly and in the second lap made a outside to inside maneuver to take over the lead. Soon after Lucas Coenen went past Coldenhoff as well, putting the championship rivals in the top two spots.
Jago Geerts also made a start into the top 5, but could just not hold the tempo and also a small crash later on to the race did not help, finishing in 10th spot.
Considering the stage of the track we haven’t seen a big number of crashes. For most of the race, there was no change in the top 3 results.
Lucas Coenen was pushing hard towards Romain Febvre, even closed the gap, tried to make some moves, but there was no success as Febvre kept the pace, kept the mind calm and made no mistakes and eventually winning the qualifying race 2,6 seconds ahead of Coenen and extended the championship lead by 1 point.
And just as we were thinking that Glenn Coldenhoff is going to take the third, Ruben Fernandez had different plans and made a pass in the last lap, to steal the third place for himself.
And as we were wondering in what form will we see Yamaha’s Maxime Renaux after the injury, he answered quickly with finishing 5th in his first race upon his return.
Here’s MXGP of Czech Republic top 10 qualifying results:
MX2
The MX2 qualifying race had an epic start even before the gates dropped. Kay de Wolf, who was selecting the gate first, chose the complete outside gate, which took everyone by surprise.
And the plan didn’t work in his favor. The start was not good at all as many other riders blocked him soon, putting him in around 20th place right after the start. But he was not done just yet!
De Wolf was on a mission and by the end of the first lap, he was already on sixth place and immediately in the next lap, he got himself to fifth, wasting no time at all.
Kawasaki’s Mathis Valin made a better choice for the gate pick and took the Fox Holeshot, ahead of Valerio Lata and Camden Mc Lellan.
Mc Lellan soon after touched the rear wheel of Valin and went down into the mud right after the finish line jump, but picked himself up and continued the race.
Championship leader Simon Lägenfelder didn’t have a good start, only around 11th place. He did make some progress through the race, eventually finishing in sixth.
Czech local hero Julius Mikula who made a good start, kept his pace through out the race and eventually finishing seventh.
But all eyes were on Kay de Wolf. He wasn’t going to settle for fifth. He’s put on a show and eventually caught and passed Thibault Benistant and in the last lap, he passed Andrea Adamo to take the third place.
Mathis Valin was unbothered by others for all of the race, led all the way and finished 6,5 seconds clear of Honda’s Valerio Lata.
This was also Valin’s first ever MX2 moto win.
Here’s MXGP of Czech Republic top 10 qualifying results for MX2 class.
Both classes gave us something interesting to watch and something to look forward to for Sunday’s races. Will we see another mud party on the hills of Loket? Who will step on the top podium this weekend?