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/275014
IN THE WIND P20 CAIROLI BACK TO WINNING WAYS IN THAILAND H ot and humid conditions made things difficult for both man and machine at the sec- ond round of the FIM Motocross World Championship in Si Rach, Thailand on March 9. But when all was said and done, it was the same two racers – Antonio Cai- roli and Jeffrey Herlings - on the top step of the podium in both the MXGP and MX2 class mo- tos. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team riders pretty much dominated all the racing action, with Cairoli coming out on top of the MXGP class and Herlings the MX2 division. Cairoli won both MXGP motos, while Rockstar Energy Suzuki's Clement Desalle claimed sec- ond overall with a pair of second- place finishes, despite dealing with a less-than-perfect running bike in the first moto. Filling out the podium with two third-place finishes was Yamaha Factory Racing's Jeremy Van Horebeek. The Belgian took the Fox Head Holeshot in race two and held off Cairoli for the first 12 minutes. Van Horebeek man- aged to keep a cool head and finish the race safely in third. Opening round runner-up Max Nagl had to fight hard for his re- sult. The German started both races well outside of the top 10. Nevertheless, Nagl moved fluidly through the field to take sixth in moto one and fourth in moto two for fourth overall. Nagl remains second in the MXGP champion- ship standings. Opening-round winner Mon- ster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team's Gautier Paulin had a day of ups and downs. In race one, the Frenchman had a poor start but managed to find his flow and push through the pack to claim fourth. In race two, Paulin got off to a much better start com- ing around turn one in fourth. Af- ter battling hard the entire race, his result was sabotaged, as his bike struggled in the heat. He managed to crawl home ninth, which was enough to give him fifth overall, but that dropped him back to third in the champi- onship standings. During MXGP race one, in a battle for fourth, CLS Kawasaki Monster Energy's Tommy Searle came up short on the biggest jump of the track, which ended in disaster for the Brit. The im- pact was so hard that the forks of his CLS Kawasaki were com- pletely destroyed and the rest of his bike wasn't looking much better. His team confirmed Sear- le will be sidelined with a sus- pected broken wrist. In MX2 action, Herlings took the Fox Head Holeshot in moto one and went on to dominate in typical Herlings style. In race two, Herlings was off to another good start, moving into second before the third turn with only Max Anstie in front of him. An- stie led the first half of the race before Herlings found his rhythm and passed Anstie to win his second race of the day by eight seconds. PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ARCHER/KTM IMAGES Antonio Cairoli won both motos at the MXGP of Thailand. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SUZUKI