GAUTIER PAULINS & JEFFREY HERLINGS WIN ITALIAN MOTOCROSS GRAND PRIX



Kawasaki’s Gautier Paulin is winning races, but he isn’t gaining any points because Cairoli answers back the next week.


Clement Desalle won the first 450 moto, but failed to finish moto two with a mechanical issue. Photo: Ray Archer

The historic Maggiora track was brought back to life this weekend to host round nine of the FIM 450 and 250 World Championships where Gautier Paulin and Jeffrey Herlings add yet another overall GP victory to their 2013 seasons. While the sun shone brightly, Gautier Paulin shone brighter taking his third overall victory this year with his 3-1 finishes. Ken De Dycker stood on the second step of the podium with 2-3 scores and rounding out the top three was Italian hero Antonio Cairoli with a 4-2 score for third. Clement Desalle won the first moto, but had issues in moto two.

Desalle said, “Everything was good in the first moto; the start, running second and then taking over after Cairoli’s crash. I had a good rhythm and set good lap-times and just controlled the gap until the end. I didn’t take any risks and I felt really positive for the second moto. The start was so important here and, unfortunately, I was out of the top five. I fought hard to get back to fourth and suddenly the bike stopped. It was so unlucky and it just feels like we are always fighting something. We have a free weekend now and I don’t think I will ride and just do some good training next week.”


Gautier Paulin won his third 450 GP race of the season.


Max Nagl.

MAGGIORA RESULTS: 450 CLASS
1. Gautier Paulin……………….3-1
2. Ken de Dycker……………..2-3
3. Antonio Cairoli……………..4-2
4. Jeremy van Horebeek……5-4
5. Max Nagl………………………6-6
6. Kevin Strijbos………………..7-7
7. Tommy Searle………………10-5
8. Davide Guarneri…………….9-8
9. Xavier Boog………………….8-9
10. Clement Desalle…………..1-23


Tony Cairoli fell a couple times, but even a 4-2 day is no sweat for a guy with a 51-point lead in the Championship. Photo: Ray Archer


Evgeny Bobryshev and the hills of Italy.

450 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS
(After 9 of 18 races)
1. Tony Cairoli…………………417
2. Gautier Paulin………………366
3. Clement Desalle…………..334
4. Ken De Dycker……………..319
5. Kevin Strijbos……………….271
6. Tommy Searle………………266
7. Max Nagl………………………220
9. Jeremy Van Horebeek…..205
8. Rui Goncalves………………180
10. David Philippaerts………..145


Jeffrey Herlings is now just one point short of a five-moto lead over the 250 field. Photo: Ray Archer

Meanwhile in the 250 class, Jeffrey Herlings added yet another perfect score to his already colossal points lead with his 1-1 finishes. Jose Butron took home second with a 2-5 score while Italian Alessandro Lupino went 2-6 for third.

Herlings had to work harder for his wins this weekend, largely due to a pair of dogged rides by Russia’s Alex Tonkov, who was first out of the gate in the opening moto and who held the lead for the first 18 minutes. The Russian’s efforts eventually went unrewarded when he crashed just before the finish and while is bike slid across the line, he was deemed not to be on it at the time. Race officials subsequently took away his points. Tonkov challenged the dominance of Herlings again in the second moto, but this time Jeffrey took the lead in the first phase of the race. Tonkov would have gone 3-3 for a podium spot, but was scored 22-3 for tenth. Herlings won the motos by margins of 7 seconds and 4.4 seconds respectively on the remodeled northern Italian circuit. Herlings now has a massive points lead of 124 going into the second half of the season.?

Jeffrey said, “Tonkov was tough for me this weekend. He made good starts, but in the end I managed to pass him and made a pretty big gap.” Herlings said after the race. He now returns to race next weekend in the Dutch Championship and to prepare for the next GP in Sweden. “I’ve never won there, but I hope to do so this time.”

KTM’s Head of Motorsports Pit Beirer said of the old school Maggiora track, “I think this is one of the nicest GPs we’ve had in recent years and maybe we need to think about coming back more often to these traditional tracks where we have such a lot of fans.”

MAGGIORA RESULTS: 250 CLASS
1. Jeffrey Herlings ………1-1
2. Jose Butron ……………2-5
3. Alessandro Lupino ….6-2
4. Jordi Tixier ……………..4-4
5. Jake Nicholls ……..…..3-8
6. Christophe Charlier…..5-6
7. Dean Ferris …………….7-7
8. Petar Petrov ……………10-9
9. Glenn Coldenhoff………9-10
10. Alexander Tonkov……22-3


Dean Ferris.

250 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS
(After 9 of 18 races)
1. Jeffrey Herlings………….447
2. Jordi Tixier………………..323
3. Jose Butron………………285
4. Christophe Charlier…….261
5. Glenn Coldenhoff……….260
6. Dean Ferris……………….225
7. Jake Nicholls……………..214
8. Max Anstie………………..201
9. Alessandro Lupino……..199
10. Dylan Ferrandis………..159

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