Cycle News Staff | October 14, 2020
Spain’s own Jorge Prado became the first Spaniard to win a motocross Grand Prix on home soil since Jonathan Barragan in 2009 when the Red Bull KTM rider won both motos at the MXGP of Spain, October 11.
Jorge Prado swept both motos on home soil at the MXGP of Spain. Photos: Ray Archer
Prado holeshot both MXGP motos and ran off with the wins. It was Prado’s third win of the season, but he still has a long way to go to catch championship leader Tim Gajser with six rounds to go.
Gajser was second overall on the day after trading 2-3 motos with Romain Febvre. Despite finishing second to Prado, the Honda HRC rider, Gajser, extended his championship lead over Antonio Cairoli from 11 points to 24.
Cairoli struggled with this starts and finished out the day sixth overall with a 7-6 score.
Jeremy Seewer, seventh on the day (10-5), is third in the championship another 21 points back.
“It’s a dream for all of us Spanish guys,” Prado said. “Winning in Spain or winning in your home country is always very special. It’s a pity we didn’t have the spectators but anyway to win on home soil is still incredible. After the last race in Mantova, I really did some training again, I’m making progress every week and that you can see in my racing, so I’m heading in a good direction and yeah it was just a perfect day.”
Gasjer was happy to extend his points lead. “It was a good day, actually,” he said. “I was enjoying it and I really liked the track in Spain. I didn’t get a good start in both races. The first one I finished third and then the second one, I was seventh out of the gate and by the second corner I was able to make many passes. I then caught Jorge [Prado] and tried to push, I had some nice lines where I was catching him, and I even passed him at one moment, but he passed me back. Then we were quite close together, but then I saw that Romain [Febvre] was not so close and then I finished second. Second overall so I am happy.”
In MX2, Frenchman Tom Vialle extended his points lead over Belgian Jago Geerts. Had it not been for an untimely engine stall on the last lap of the second moto, Vialle would’ve won both motos but instead settled for a 1-2, which was still good enough for the overall win over Geerts, who went 5-1.
Third overall went to Denmark’s Thomas Kjer Olsen (2-7).
The Red Bull KTM rider, Vialle, stretched out his championship lead from 46 to 52 points over Geerts.
Australia’s Jed Beaton, who was sixth overall (3-10) is third in the standings, but nearly 100 points behind Geerts in the championship.
Tom Vialle stretched out his MX2 points lead with a 1-2.
“I don’t know, I was very comfortable with the bike, but then bike stopped, and I took a little bit of time to start it again,” Vialle said of the second moto. “But I was happy with my riding, I was feeling really comfortable in race two and the whole weekend. Actually, it was a really good day for the championship and now I’m only focused on the next races in Lommel in the sand.”
Australian Mitch Evans (Honda HRC) suffered a broken wrist when he flat-landed from a jump while running fourth. His return to the championship is unclear at this time.
MXGP
- Jorge Prado (KTM) 1-1
- Tim Gajser (Hon) 3-2
- Romain Febvre (Kaw) 2-3
- Glenn Coldenhoff (GG) 5-4
- Clement Desalle (Kaw) 4-7)
MX2
- Tom Vialle (KTM) 1-2
- Jago Geerts (Yam) 5-1
- Thomas Kjer Olsen (Hus) 2-7
- Roan Van De Moosdijk (Kaw) 8-3
- Maxime Renaux (Yam) 6-5
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