Cycle News Staff | July 17, 2023
The FIM Motocross World Championship took to the hillsides of the Czech Republic for the MXGP of Loket, round 12 of the series on July 16. Fans saw repeat victors in both classes, with Romain Febvre taking his third win in a row and Jago Geerts claiming his second consecutive win in the MX2 division.
MXGP
After yet another qualifying race win, Jorge Prado, took off with the early lead in the first MXGP race. Febvre had other plans though. After winning the last two overalls, Febvre carried that momentum as he powered his Kawasaki to the lead by turn two and never looked back. Prado continued to fight for second but eventually lost the spot to Yamaha’s Jeremy Seewer.
Prado gets the start in race one. Photo: GasGas
But Romain Febvre pushed through to take the moto win.
In moto two, Seewer pushed to the lead with Prado second and Febvre third. Febvre mounted an early charge and capitalized on a crash by Seewer to move into the lead on lap six. He again looked to be running away with it, but then also fell in the same turn as Seewer. With Febvre crashing out of the top spot, Calvin Vlaanderen found himself inheriting the lead after passing up to second. The Dutch rider claimed his first win of the season, going 5-1 for fourth overall. Prado took second, Seewer third and Febvre fourth. Still, Febvre’s 1-4 scores gave him the edge for another overall victory, his third in a row. Prado however continues to lead the championship standings by nearly 100 points.
Seewer continued his momentum from race one and holeshotted race two.
Both Seewer and Febvre led and fell in race two.
“I’m very happy to win after my mistake in the second race,” said Febvre. “I was leading comfortably, but I made my own mistake and crashed twice. I still capitalized on my performance and finished fourth to win the GP.”
Vlaanderen capitalized and took the race win.
Overall podium.
MX2
Geerts is on a mission to retake his early season championship lead. The Yamaha rider, who returned from injury a few weeks back, grabbed the early lead in MX2 race one and walked away from the rest of the field. Geerts ran away with the win in an effort to score as many points as possible. Kevin Horgmo and Kay de Wolf rounded out the podium. Drama ensued for his competitors as points leader, Andrea Adamo, crashed with Geerts’s teammate Rick Elzinga and later received a penalty for passing on a yellow flag. He finished 13th.
Geerts checked out in the first MX2 race.
Adamo rebounded in race two and fought hard to take the lead from Simon Laengenfelder by the halfway point. Adamo held on for the rest of the moto, taking his first-ever race victory. A 13-1 netted fifth overall to keep the points lead.
Langenfelder got the start in race two.
Geerts, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be in a big rush, as his race-one win solidified him in the championship rankings. He finished second in the moto behind Laengenfelder but took the day’s overall win.
Adamo bounced back from a tough first race to take his first career win in race two.
“The goal is to take as much points as possible, but if I don’t feel comfortable on the track, I don’t want to take too many risks,” said Geerts. “It’s still a very good day with the overall win and I’m very happy about the weekend.” CN
MXGP
- Romain Febvre (Kaw) 1-4
- Jorge Prado (GG) 3-2
- Jeremy Seewer (Yam) 2-3
- Calvin Vlaanderen (Yam) 5-1
- Glenn Coldenhoff (Yam) 4-7
MX2
- Jago Geerts (Yam) 1-3
- Simon Laengenfelder (GG) 4-2
- Kay de Wolf (Hus) 3-4
- Kevin Horgmo (Kaw) 2-9
- Andrea Adamo (KTM) 13-1
