Steve Cox | June 10, 2018
2018 St. Jean d’Angely MX GP Results: There was a downpour of rain in the forecast for the St. Jean d’Angely round of the MX GP World Championships, but it never fully materialized, which was either good or bad depending on how good of a mud rider was being asked. In the MX2 class, American Thomas Covington won the Saturday qualifying race on his Rockstar Energy Husqvarna over defending world champ and points leader Pauls Jonass (Red Bull KTM), and then picked up where he left off in moto one on Sunday, grabbing the holeshot in front of his teammate Thomas Kjer Olsen, Jonass, Henry Jacobi, and the rest of the field. Red Bull KTM’s Jorge Prado rounded the first lap in 8th.
2018 St. Jean d’Angely MX GP Results
American Thomas Covington had his best weekend of the year so far after returning from an injury a few weeks ago. He qualified first and went 1-3 on the day, his second-moto start likely being the only thing between him and the overall victory. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF YOUTHSTREAM
Covington put time between himself and his teammate in the early stages while Jonass found himself fighting to hang on to third for the entire first half of the moto, first coming under attack from Husqvarna-mounted Jacobi, and then by Prado. Once Prado got the pass to stick, Jonass was forced to settle for fourth.
Covington took his second moto win of the 2018 season with about four seconds to spare in front of Olsen, Prado, Jonass and Yamaha’s Jago Geerts rounding out the top five.
2018 St. Jean d’Angely MX GP Results
Jorge Prado (pictured) took the win in France with a 3-1 score. He’s still second in points, 16 behind defending champ Pauls Jonass. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF YOUTHSTREAM
For the second moto, Prado returned to his usual, fast-starting ways, grabbing the holeshot over Geerts while Covington found himself mired at the tail end of the top 10 and Jonass barely got going inside the top 20. Covington fought his way forward throughout the moto until, with three laps left to run, he made the move stick for third place around teammate Olsen, but Geerts was just too far out of reach.
Prado took the moto and overall win. Geerts ended up second in the moto, while Covington’s 1-3 score landed him second overall just in front of the 3-4 of teammate Olsen, Geerts (5-2) and Jonass (4-6).
Jonass still leads Prado in the championship chase by 16 points.
2018 St. Jean d’Angely MX GP Results
Jeffrey Herlings continues his domination of the MX GP championship, going 1-1 in France and adding another 8 points to his already-massive points lead. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF YOUTHSTREAM
In the MX GP class, Red Bull KTM’s Jeffrey Herlings continued his 2018 domination, qualifying first by winning the qualifying race on Saturday, then grabbing a massive holeshot from the outside gate in moto one over Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Clement Desalle, Red Bull KTM’s Glenn Coldenhoff and Antonio Cairoli.
It took Cairoli over half the race to find his way by Coldenhoff, and by then the leaders were just too far gone. Herlings won by about six seconds over Desalle, who had less than a second in-hand on Cairoli at the checkered flag. Quite a ways back came Honda’s Tim Gajser in fourth after a late-race pass on Coldenhoff, who ended up fifth.
2018 St. Jean d’Angely MX GP Results
Antonio Cairoli is still searching for a way to beat Herlings consistently. He led moto two in France only for Herlings to go by with a handful of laps left to run. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF YOUTHSTREAM
In the second moto, Cairoli got the holeshot, and he led Gajser as the pair began to pull away from the field. Herlings started fifth and worked his way up to third by the end of the second lap. It took him seven laps to catch and pass Gajser, and then another five to do the same with Cairoli, but he made the pass stick with five laps left to run and took the moto victory by over 8 seconds over Cairoli. Then came Gajser in third, followed by Monster Energy Yamaha’s Romain Febvre and fellow Frenchman Gautier Paulin, with Desalle coming home sixth and Coldenhoff seventh.
Herlings took yet another overall win with a 1-1 score over Cairoli’s 3-2 and Gajser’s 4-3. Desalle was fourth overall with a 2-6 and Febvre fifth with his 7-4.
Herlings has now stretched his points advantage to 62 points over Cairoli at the halfway point in the championship.
2018 St. Jean d’Angely MX GP Results
2018 St. Jean d’Angely MX GP Results
2018 St. Jean d’Angely MX GP Results
2018 St. Jean d’Angely MX GP Results
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