VOL. 52 ISSUE 16 APRIL 21, 2015 P45
out behind him, riding fast and
smooth for a wire-to-wire win,
with Cairoli lagging about nine
seconds behind, content with
second place points and seem-
ingly not concerned about a
hard-charging Villopoto, with
Desalle not far behind. As Nagle
cruised out front, things began
to heat up between Villopoto
and Desalle on lap nine, allow-
ing Cairoli to open up a small
gap. The two riders battled
back and forth with Villopoto
emerging in front each time.
As the pair wheelied past the
mechanic's tower, the front end
of Villopoto's Kawasaki just kept
climbing, past the point of no
return and he looped out, land-
ing hard on his tailbone, then
tumbling and landing on his feet,
as if choreographed. He ran off
the track, and then collapsed
while clinging to the mechanic's
tower, obviously in considerable
pain and unable to continue.
His bike, which very nearly took
out Desalle, had the handlebars
broken off on the right side.
One lap later, Desalle went
down hard when his front end
tucked in a fast left hand turn,
allowing Romain Febvre on a
Factory Yamaha to slip by into
third, which he held to the finish.
When the dust cleared, it was
Nagle's 2-1 over Cairoli's 1-2,
with Desalle's 3-4 points barely
keeping the red plate on his
bike. Febvre's 7-3 and Paulin's
5-5 landed them in fourth and
fifth overall for the day, and into
the same positions in the point
standings. Villopoto's 4-DNF
dropped him into sixth in the
series points.
Honda Gariboldi's Tim Gasjer
took his first MXGP2 overall win,
beating Jeffrey Herlings "straight
up" in the second moto (with
Herlings falling at one point) and
reducing the Red Bull KTM rider
to mere mortal status. It was
the first win ever by a rider from
Slovenia. The Kawasakis of Jordi
Tixier (3-3), Dylan Ferrandis (5-
4) and Max Anstie (4-7) rounded
out the top five.
Steve Bauer
Max Nagl (12)
battles Antonio
Cairoli (222) for
the lead before
going on to
take the MXGP-
class victory.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
JP
ACEVEDO
