Max Nagl earns his second MXGP win of the season in South America; Dylan Ferrandis wins MX2
Germany’s Max Nagl scored his second MXGP overall win of the season via 3-1 moto finishes during round three of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the GP of Patagonia Argentina in Neuquen, Argentina, today. Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Dylan Ferrandis won the MX2 class via 1-2 finishes.
American riders Ryan Villopoto finished fourth overall in the MXGP class, while his Monster Energy Kawasaki teammate, Thomas Covington, finished fourth overall in MX2.
Hitachi Construction Machinery/Revo KTM’s Shaun Simpson pulled holeshot in Moto 1, but Rockstar Energy Suzuki’s Clement Desalle and Red Bull KTM’s Antonio Cairoli quickly dropped Simpson back to third, just ahead of of Villopoto, who was just as quickly attacked by Evgeny Bobryshev and Jeremy van Horebeek, dropping to sixth. Villopoto immediately went to work and got past both of them before setting his sights on Simpson.
However, the Scotsman wasn’t about to yield to the American, and the two battled back and forth before Simpson nearly unloaded in a sandy rhythm section, allowing Villopoto to move into third place. Nagl moved into fourth place and began to shadow Villopoto as the two attempted to catch Cairoli and race leader deSalle. The flying Nagl eventually passed Villopoto and moved into third place.
Up front, deSalle maintained a fast pace that Cairoli couldn’t match, and deSalle went on to win the race by 10.6 seconds over the eight-time and defending World Champion. Nagl finished third just a little over 1 second behind Cairoli. Villopoto was fourth, another 8 seconds behind Nagl. Bobryshev was fifth and his Team HRC teammate Gautier Paulin was sixth.
Villopoto could only muster an 11th-place start in moto two, as Nagl pulled the holeshot with deSalle and Cairoli coming across the holeshot stripe right with him in a virtual three-rider dead heat. deSalle once again took the early lead in the race with Cairoli second and Nagl third. Bobryshev and Simpson ran fourth and fifth, but the two banged bars in a corner on the opening lap and both men crashed.
Vllopoto was quickly up to sixth place, chasing van Horebeek and Glenn Coldenhoff of the Netherlands. Villopoto would make his way past both men as the top six riders all ran within a couple seconds of each other during the first 5 minutes of the moto.
Nagl was clearly on the move as he shot past Cairoli by taking the long way around a right-handed sweeper on lap four and moved to within striking distance of deSalle. Meanwhile, Villopoto was all over the back of Cairoli. The Argentine fans were treated to a fantastic battle between the reigning World Champion and the man regarded as the best American rider over the past few seasons. The battle would ultimately go to Cairoli despite Villopoto cutting the fastest lap of the race, a 1:49.359.
Nagl finally worked his way into the lead after deSalle made a mistake in a corner with 16 minutes plus two laps remaining in the race. deSalle elected not to force the matter, knowing that he still had the overall win sewed up if he finished second, but Cairoli started to up his own pace and cut into deSalle’s 4.7-second advantage. Backmarkers would come into play; deSalle was balked by them, which allowed Cairoli to pass deSalle with about 5 minutes plus two laps left in the moto, dropping him to third place in the moto.
Nagl ran a clean race out front and crossed the finish line 2.2 seconds ahead of Cairoli to claim the moto win. deSalle’s third-place finish tied him with Nagl on 45 points, but Nagl claimed the overall win via his better performance in the tie-breaking second moto. Cairoli finished third overall, with Villopoto came fourth overall with Paulin fifth overall.
“This is a fantastic result,” Nagl said. “I’m so happy for everyone involved that made this victory happen–it was a real team effort. We had some problems during Saturday but we managed to overcome them and with each lap on race day I felt more and more comfortable. Unfortunately in race one I got pushed wide in the first corner and then had to narrowly avoid crashing with another rider over a jump. That dropped me to about 11th, so it was very pleasing to get back to third. Despite actually stalling my engine when the five-second board was raised I managed to holeshot the race. On lap seven I got the lead and felt comfortable out front to take the win. At the time I didn’t even know it was for the overall so it’s great to have also got that too. With two wins from three rounds in these flyaway races I’m really excited to return to Europe for the next round in Italy.”
FIM Motocross World Championship
Patagonia Race Track
Patagonia, Argentina
Results: March 29, 2015 (Round 3 of 18)
MXGP
1. Max Nagl (GER)-Hus/3-1
2. Clement Desalle (BEL)-Suz/1-3
3. Tony Cairoli (ITA)-KTM/2-2
4. Ryan Villopoto (USA)-Kaw/4-4
5. Gautier Paulin (FRA)-Hon/6-7
6. Jeremy van Horebeek (BEL)-Yam/9-5
7. Romain Febvre (FRA)-Yam/8-6
8. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS)-Hon/5-10
9. Todd Waters (AUS)-Hus/11-9
10. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED)-Suz/14-8
FIM Motocross World Championship MXGP Point Standings (After 3 of 18 rounds)
1. Clement Desalle-133
2. Max Nagl-125/2 wins
3. Antonio Cairoli-123
4. Ryan Villopoto-106/1 win
5. Gautier Paulin-96
6. Romain Febvre-95
7. Evgeny Bobryshev-72
8. Todd Waters-62
9. Jeremy Van Horebeek-60
10. Kevin Strijbos-55
MX2
1. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA)-Kaw/1-2
2. Pauls Jonass (LAT)-KTM/2-3
3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI)-Suz/5-5
4. Thomas Covington (USA)-Kaw/7-7
5. Tim Gasjer (SLO)-Hon/12-4
6. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS)-Hus/10-6
7. Jeffrey Herlings (NED)-KTM/DNF-1
8. Adam Sterry (GBR)-KTM/11-11
9. Max Anstie (GBR)-Kaw/3-22
10. Brian Rogers (NED)-KTM/15-8
FIM Motocross World Championship MX2 Point Standings (After 3 of 18 rounds)
1. Jeffrey Herlings-125/2 wins
2. Dylan Ferrandis-125/1 win
3. Pauls Jonass-112
4. Aleksandr Tonkov-82
5. Thomas Covington-81
6. Julien Lieber-80
7. Tim Gasjer-79
8. Valentin Guillod-73
9. Jeremy Seewer-70
10. Petar Petrov-57
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