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MXGP Ottobiano: Covington bags MX2 qualification win

Thomas Covington (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) ripped to a wire-to-wire win in MX2 qualification at the MXGP of Lombardia – round 11 of the FIM Motocross World Championship – in northern Italy this afternoon. The victory – his second quali race win in a row and his third this season – means the American will have first gate pick for tomorrow’s main races.

“I got the holeshot which is what we’ve been working for these last couple of weeks,” he said. “After that I tried to get a gap at the beginning so I could relax and find some different lines and save as much energy as possible. It’s really physically demanding and I want have a little bit left in the tank for tomorrow.”

Out of the gate Covington pushed his rivals wide before cutting in tight to take a lead he never looked like relinquishing in the 20-minute plus two lap race.

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Dutch rider Davy Pootjes (LRT KTM) was second from Spain’s Jorge Prado (Red Bull KTM) who led his team-mate and defending champion Pauls Jonass before the Latvian moved into third after five minutes. Calvin Vlaanderen (Team HRC) held fifth ahead of Britain’s Ben Watson (Kemea Yamaha).

It took Jonass six laps to find a way around sand specialist Pootjes but when he did he was immediately followed by Prado with South African Vlaanderen and Watson also going through in successive laps.

As Covington stretched out his lead to 10 seconds, Jonass stalled with five laps to go and dropped back to fifth.

On the final few laps Covington backed it off but was still a comfortable eight seconds clear of Prado at the flag with Vlaanderen another five seconds back. Watson was fourth from Jonass and Pootjes with Britain’s Conrad Mewse (Hitachi ASA KTM UK) seventh ahead of Spain’s Iker Larranaga (Diga Procross Husqvarna).

Dane Thomas Kjer Olsen (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) – who’s currently one place ahead of Watson in third in the championship – came through to ninth after ending the opening lap 19th with Belgian schoolboy Jago Geerts (Kemea Yamaha) rounding out the top 10.

After missing the last round in France on doctor’s orders when he suffered heat exhaustion at the MXGP of GB, Britain’s Adam Sterry (F&H Kawasaki) was 12th.

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