Race Report: Belgium GP

Author: David Bulmer

MX1 Race 1

Cairoli holeshoted on the KTM 350 but ran wide in corner two letting Desalle come around, but behind them there was a incident taking down a number of riders including Bobryshev, Simpson and de Dycker.

Desalle came under pressure from Cairoli early who made a quick pass on Frossard and for the first couple of laps Cairoli and Desalle made a number of passes on each other putting on a very good show on a track that was getting more and more lines.

Near the end of lap three Cairoli clipped a hay bale and went down trying to cut back to retake the lead, but he kept the bike running and remounted in 3^rd. Desalle then came under pressure from Frossard who closed the gap and for a few laps Frossard pressured Desalle but no pass was made. Eventually Desalle pulled a lead again and Frossard was overtaken by a rejuvenated Cairoli.

Cairoli set his sights on Desalle and with five minutes left in the moto closed onto Desalle's rear wheel, with a very good inside line and hanging off the back off his bike he made a pass with two and a half laps to go, opening up a couple of second lead almost immediately. He would end up winning by nine seconds, followed by Rockstar Suzuki's Clement Desalle, 3^rd was decided on the line when Rui Goncalves made a last corner pass on Steven Frossard. Max Nagl rode a consistent race for 5^th, followed by a hard charging Bobryshev who came back from the first corner pile up for 6^th.

MX1 Race 2

Once again it was a Cairoli holeshot, followed by Bobryshev and Nagl. Cairoli started to check out only to come unstuck early and crash, quickly remounting in 3^rd. Out front Bobryshev started to pull a gap while Cairoli made quick work or Nagl, before gradually reeling in Bobryshev, but then the big Russian made a big mistake coming out of the whoops before the finish and that let Cairoli to close right in.

Two corners later and the pass was made, with Cairoli putting distance on the field with ease. Again with the big speed difference between the leaders and the lappers, Cairoli had a few issues of being held up, but nothing of much note. The battle for 4^th was a good one between two local riders, Clement Desalle and Ken de Dycker. Desalle and de Dycker could not stay with the leaders this time and were joined by Rui Goncalves, before the Portuguese's bike died on the last lap robbing him of a GP podium, he was visually upset.

Cairoli won easily, however Nagl got Bobryshev on the last lap, with Clement Desalle next home. Tanel Leok on the factory TM was 5^th, 6^th was Monster Energy Yamaha's Steven Frossard followed by LS Motors Honda's Shaun Simpson who had a very good ride.

Overall

MX2 Race 1

Off the start it was the three factory Red Bull Teka KTM's of Roczen, Herlings and van Horebeek out front. Herlings quickly made a pass on his teammate and pulled a couple of seconds lead, he looked comfortable for the first few laps and was pulling a lead slowly. He then made a small mistake and tipped over but managed to get going still in the lead, this let Roczen back on his tail though and it wasn't long before he made a pass over the table top after the mechanics area.

While this was happening they pulled out a huge lead over 3^rd place van Horebeek. Searle, Anstie and Paulin were battling for 4^th for a few laps before Anstie ran off the track; Seale and Paulin then got together in a corner over the back and both went down.

Roczen and Herlings swapped the lead a couple of times but going into the final lap, it was the German who was out front. Herlings kept up the pressure as the back markers came into play holding up both riders, but just a quarter of the way through the final lap, Roczen had a big high side handing the moto win to Herlings, Roczen remounted and held onto second, van Horebeek was 3^rd to complete the Red Bull Teka KTM podium sweep, followed by the Anstie on the CLS Monster Pro Circuit Kawasaki, then came the very impressive Yamaha mounted Petar Petrov who backed up his good qualifying race from Saturday. CLS Monster Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Tommy Searle was 6^th, followed by Monster Yamaha's Gautier Paulin 7^th. HM Plant Red Bull KTM UK's Jake Nicholls came in 8^th.

MX2 Race 2

Roczen again got the holeshot followed by team mates Herlings and van Horebeek. Herlings again swept around the outside in turn two to take the early lead but this was short lived as he had a small crash half way around the first lap on what was now a very treacherous Lommel track. He remounted quickly in 3^rd and put on a charge passing both his teammates in two and a half laps to retake the lead.

Herlings put on a clinic again and pulled a four second lead pretty quickly and then went into conservation mode and keeping the German at arms length despite the lappers holding them up at different stages.

Van Horebeek had a lonely race in 3^rd, not being able to match the pace of his teammates he rode a very smart race in his way back from injury. Max Anstie again had a poor first lap but made his way through to 4^th and started to look like he was taking time off van Horebeek, however a small tip over in front of the VIP area saw him drop back and get re-passed by Paulin. He did get back going though and once again went ahead of the Yamaha rider. Max looked fast all day but bad first laps, and small mistakes in each moto cost him a shot at the podium.

5^th went to Monster Energy Yamaha's Gautier Paulin, 6^th was CLS Pro Circuit's Tommy Searle.

Overall