Defending MXGP champion Tony Cairoli headed home a Red Bull KTM one-two-three with a commanding qualification win this afternoon at Matterley Basin.
The Sicilian, who’s going for a record-equalling 10th world title this season, has lost ground over the last five rounds to his team-mate Jeffrey Herlings but was back to his brilliant best in the 20-minute plus two lap race.
After taking the holeshot from team-mate Glen Coldenhoff and Tim Gajser (Team HRC) with Herlings fourth from Britain’s Max Anstie (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) and Tommy Searle (Bike It DRT Kawasaki), Cairoli simply checked out to win by 20 seconds.
Amazingly, it was only his second quali win of the season – his first coming at round one in Argentina back in March – but Cairoli is a huge fan of the spectacular Hampshire circuit where he wrapped up his seventh world title in 2013.
“It’s really important to get the start as we saw in the last race in Germany,” he said, “so we worked a little bit on the start as we had some problems before. I hope we figured it out and tomorrow we can have a good start again and try to make a good result.”
At half-distance Anstie, who was revisiting the scene of his double win at last year’s Motocross of Nations for the first time, started to close on Herlings but as he pushed hard a crash in a right-hand turn dropped him back to ninth where he stayed until the flag.
Gajser, a double winner at Matterley Basin the last time the world championship visited the track in 2016, was struggling to pass Coldenhoff and then lost third in the closing laps as Herlings picked up his pace.
Just before the last lap flag came out Herlings pounced on his fellow Dutchman to ensure he gets second gate pick for tomorrow’s two main races.
Belgium’s Clement Desalle (Monster Energy Kawasaki) worked his way up from sixth after the opening lap to fifth at the flag ahead of Gautier Paulin (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) who passed Searle for sixth on the final lap.
Despite dislocating his shoulder two weeks ago in Germany, Jeremy Van Horebeek (Monster Energy Yamaha) came home eighth with his French team-mate Romain Febvre rounding out the top 10.
Shaun Simpson (Wilvo Yamaha) had been as high as 11th in his comeback race after fracturing his hip in Russia but he faded to 17th, one place ahead of Graeme Irwin (Hitachi ASA KTM UK) who was also returning from injury.
The first of two MXGP points-paying races gets out the gate at 1pm tomorrow.
MXGP Matterley Basin qualifying race
1 222 Cairoli, Antonio ITA FMI KTM 25:51.194 10 0:00.000 0:00.000 2:19.618 5 50.2
2 84 Herlings, Jeffrey NED KNMV KTM 26:11.215 10 0:20.021 0:20.021 2:21.667 6 49.5
3 259 Coldenhoff, Glenn NED KNMV KTM 26:15.327 10 0:24.133 0:04.112 2:22.040 5 49.4
4 243 Gajser, Tim SLO AMZS Honda 26:19.232 10 0:28.038 0:03.905 2:22.469 6 49.2
5 25 Desalle, Clement BEL FMB Kawasaki 26:24.015 10 0:32.821 0:04.783 2:22.091 7 49.4
6 21 Paulin, Gautier FRA MCM Husqvarna 26:26.702 10 0:35.508 0:02.687 2:22.855 4 49.1
7 100 Searle, Tommy GBR ACU Kawasaki 26:28.667 10 0:37.473 0:01.965 2:22.816 2 49.1
8 89 Van Horebeek, Jeremy BEL FMB Yamaha 26:35.798 10 0:44.604 0:07.131 2:23.242 3 49
9 99 Anstie, Max GBR ACU Husqvarna 26:37.715 10 0:46.521 0:01.917 2:23.451 2 48.9
10 461 Febvre, Romain FRA FFM Yamaha 26:39.235 10 0:48.041 0:01.520 2:23.731 3 48.8
11 777 Bobryshev, Evgeny RUS MFR Suzuki 26:40.118 10 0:48.924 0:00.883 2:23.422 5 48.9
12 77 Lupino, Alessandro ITA FMI Kawasaki 26:40.813 10 0:49.619 0:00.695 2:22.874 5 49.1
13 91 Seewer, Jeremy SUI FMS Yamaha 26:40.874 10 0:49.680 0:00.061 2:22.958 5 49.1
14 33 Lieber, Julien BEL FMB Kawasaki 26:50.794 10 0:59.600 0:09.920 2:24.811 6 48.4
15 22 Strijbos, Kevin BEL FMB KTM 26:54.580 10 1:03.386 0:03.786 2:24.665 7 48.5
16 92 Guillod, Valentin SUI FMS KTM 26:57.141 10 1:05.947 0:02.561 2:26.255 5 47.9
17 24 Simpson, Shaun GBR ACU Yamaha 26:58.495 10 1:07.301 0:01.354 2:25.363 4 48.2
18 55 Irwin, Graeme GBR MCUI KTM 27:01.436 10 1:10.242 0:02.941 2:25.484 4 48.2
19 27 Jasikonis, Arminas LTU LMSF Honda 27:01.705 10 1:10.511 0:00.269 2:25.541 6 48.2
20 12 Nagl, Maximilian GER DMSB TM 27:07.667 10 1:16.473 0:05.962 2:25.702 9 48.1
21 17 Butron, Jose ESP RFME KTM 27:11.964 10 1:20.770 0:04.297 2:26.438 6 47.9
22 7 Leok, Tanel EST EMF Husqvarna 27:12.620 10 1:21.426 0:00.656 2:26.354 6 47.9
23 141 Desprey, Maxime FRA FFM Kawasaki 27:21.207 10 1:30.013 0:08.587 2:26.336 6 47.9
24 210 Alberto, Paulo POR FMP Yamaha 27:23.619 10 1:32.425 0:02.412 2:27.311 8 47.6
25 128 Monticelli, Ivo ITA FMI Yamaha 27:29.945 10 1:38.751 0:06.326 2:26.647 4 47.8
26 831 Wysocki, Tomasz POL PZM KTM 27:40.337 10 1:49.143 0:10.392 2:28.610 4 47.2
27 291 Karro, Matiss LAT LAMSF Kawasaki 27:47.436 10 1:56.242 0:07.099 2:29.444 5 46.9
28 83 Renkens, Nathan BEL FMB Honda 27:49.067 10 1:57.873 0:01.631 2:29.877 5 46.8
29 85 Ekerold, Stefan GER DMSB KTM 27:51.219 10 2:00.025 0:02.152 2:29.609 8 46.9
30 120 Zecchina, Simone ITA FMI Yamaha 28:13.661 10 2:22.467 0:22.442 2:31.071 5 46.4
31 191 Romancik, Jaromir CZE ACCR KTM 28:24.782 10 2:33.588 0:11.121 2:32.047 2 46.1
32 920 Valentin, Ander ESP RFME Husqvarna 26:01.736 9 1 lap 1 lap 2:28.019 4 47.4
33 152 Petrov, Petar BUL BMF Honda 15:55.429 5 5 laps 4 laps 2:27.146 4 47.7
34 93 Bengtsson, Jonathan SWE SVEMO KTM 11:53.137 3 7 laps 2 laps 2:30.860 2 46.5
