Britain’s Max Anstie has taken victory in today’s qualifying race at MXGP Villars, crossing the line more than two seconds ahead of French hero Romain Febvre with Jeffrey Herlings completing the podium.
When the gate dropped for the last qualifying race of the year several riders bustled into the first turn, but coming out with the early lead was Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Anstie. The MXGP rookie led the field for both the first and opening lap before 2015 MXGP Champion Febvre took the premier position.
Behind them was Anstie’s team-mate Gautier Paulin to the delight of the fFrench fans. For the first lap Paulin was followed by Honda Redmoto's Valentin Guillod before a mistake from Guillod.
Taking over the spot of Guillod was Team Suzuki World MXGP’s Kevin Strijbos. Strijbos would later catch up to Paulin and make an attempt to pass but Paulin pinched him off in a corner from the outside line.
Shortly after Strijbos tried to make the pass he was the one under pressure in the form of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings. Herlings slid by the Belgian and continued forward toward the back wheel of Paulin. When Herlings caught Paulin he tried to pass him in the same corner as Strijbos did laps ago. Paulin now on the inside didn’t budge and in turn forced the #84 to take the outside. While Paulin’s move worked Herlings was able to make the pass later in the lap.
Meanwhile the now 9 time Motocross World Champion, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Antonio Cairoli, fell in the early stages of the race before managing to work his way forward from 20th to finish 13th.
Back up front Febvre made a mistake allowing Anstie to get alongside him, the pair jostled each other around but kept the racing clean with only centimeters between them. Febvre barely managed to hold Anstie off and with a few laps to go he again created a slight gap over the Brit. Anstie wasn’t done though and as the crossed the finish for the penultimate time Anstie jumped in the lead as Febvre lost traction.
Anstie held the lead over Febvre for the remainder of the race and took his first MXGP win of any kind. Anstie in the press conference said: “It was awesome to be battling with Romain Febvre, the french crowd were really rooting for him, it was a little bit similar to Switzerland, but there I was battling with Tonus. This time I was a little bit nervous the first few laps and he passed me but then I found some lines, relaxed a little bit and I thought in the last five minutes I could go a bit faster, we had a really good battle going on. I know it’s Saturday…but a race win for me is a race win and it was really cool!”
Herlings went on to take third just ahead of Paulin and Strijbos. Paulin later said: “It was really important to finish in the top 5 like every Qualifying Race. I made some mistakes on the first laps which cost me a lot, I was riding safe and trying not to make any other mistake to be there for tomorrow.”
