GAJSER SURPRISES AT MXGP OPENER
W
hile the opening round of
the 2016 MXGP Cham-
pionship didn't quite have the
hype of last year's extravaganza
(due to the absence of a certain
American rider) there was still a
lot of intrigue regarding both the
MXGP and MX2 series with a
lot of questions that need to be
answered.
The MX2 class is understand-
ably all about Jeffrey Herlings
and whether he can get back to
his winning ways and stay injury-
free, while the 450s is about
the former champs Ben Townley
and Antonio Cairoli trying to get
back on top against the new
brigade of Romain Febvre, Tim
Gajser and Valentin Guillod, with
the perennial gatekeepers of
Gautier Paulin, Evgeny Bobry-
shev, Clement Desalle, Jeremy
van Horebeek (and more) trying
to break up the party.
As suspected it was Herlings
who continued his pre-season
domination, taking both moto
wins with Dylan Ferrandis push-
ing him every step of the way. In
fact it was the French rider who
led the majority of the first moto
before "The Bullet," Herlings,
forced his way past. Much like
the early part of the 2015 sea-
son, these two were way clear of
the rest of the field with Herlings'
teammate Pauls Jonass pretty
much riding around on in his
own in third place in both races.
There were some decent battles
down the field on this tricky
track but it was an ominous sign
for the rest of the class that the
#84 is already looking so good.
Of course there is a long way
IN
THE
WIND
P24
In his rookie year in the MXGP
class, MX2 World champ Tim Gajser
(center) surprised everyone in Qatar
with a 1-1 sweep.
