Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1494803
Fernandez and Geerts Win MXGP Opener T he 2023 MXGP World Cham- pionship kicked off on the March 10-12 weekend for round one in Argentina. The big story going into this year's champion - ship is both defending cham- pions, Tim Gajser (MXGP) and Tom Vialle (MXGP, not lining up for round one. Gajser is out with a broken femur suffered during a preseason warm-up race, and Vialle opting to race Supercross this year in America. This leaves the door wide open for new win - ners to emerge. At the end of the weekend, Honda's Ruben Fernan- dez (MXGP) and Yamaha's Jago Geerts (MX2) topped the overalls. The MXGP class started off with a big holeshot from Jorge Prado on his GasGas. Fernandez and Romain Febvre followed closely, with Fernandez making his move to the lead early on. Prado and Fernandez battled for the lead with the GasGas rider eventually getting the upper hand. Prado got the lead and held on for the opening-race victory. Fernan - dez fell and dropped to fifth, while Febvre capitalized on others' mis- takes to finish second. Maxime Renaux battled with Febvre but crashed and finished third. Fernandez again started up front in race two and took over the lead from Pauls Jonass. He learned from his race one mistake and went on to claim his first-ever race win. A 5-1 score gave Fer - nandez the overall win, which was also the first of his career. Jeffery Herlings battled for the podium in race two and found himself in second place early on. His 4-2 finishes gave the former champ second overall. Jeremy Seewer ran a great race in the second moto and battled to third after a disastrous start to the weekend. Prado finished sixth in race two but rounded out the overall podium with 1-6 moto scores. With the qualifying points added in the mix, it is Prado who leads the championship by two over Fernandez and Febvre. Geerts is certainly out for re - demption after narrowly losing the MX2 title a year ago. He got out front early in race one and battled fiercely with Yamaha teammate Thibault Benistant in the open - ing stages. Benistant eventually fell after coming together with a lapped rider and handed the lead back to Geerts who never relin - quished. He'd go on to take the opening race win over Benistant and Andrea Adamo. Geerts again capitalized on a good start in race two. He took over the lead on lap one and never looked back. Chaos ensued behind him, as it usually does in the first round of the year, and race-one WIND IN THE P30 Ruben Fernandez filled in nicely for his injured Honda HRC teammate and 2022 MXGP Champion Tim Gajser. Fernandez took the opening-round win in Argentina, which was the first of his career. Jago Geerts topped the MX2 class.