IN
THE
WIND
P22
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
YAMAHA
Romain Febvre's
second-place finish
in Latvia leaves
him with a single-
point lead over Tim
Gajser, enough to
hold on to the red
plate… for now.
GAJSER, HERLINGS TAKE LATVIA MXGP WINS
T
he MXGP class in the World
Championships has really
become fascinating viewing
because you just don't know
what's going to happen when
the gate drops. Will the new
guard of Tim Gajser and Romain
Febvre continue their domi-
nance, or will the old dogs start
reasserting their force and start
taking some wins? Well in Latvia,
May 1, it was still the young guns
that came out on top, but you
get the feeling that it won't be
long before Antonio Cairoli or
even Max Nagl take a GP victory
as they both showed they had
the speed for large portions of
the MXGP motos.
In race one it was Slovenian
MXGP rookie Tim Gajser who
took the win, handing him virtual
the red plate as Romain Febvre
was only able to finish fifth. Max
Nagl put on a late charge to fin-
ish second, closing right up on
Gajser as time expired. Antonio
Cairoli was in third with Jeremy
van Horebeek holding off his
world champion teammate for
fourth.
However, while race one
didn't feature too much action,
race two certainly ramped up
the excitement levels when
Gajser crashed after moving
into second place, bringing
down Nagl in the process and
very fortunately avoiding too
much damage from Nagl's bike.
That meant Febvre moved into
second, before quickly passing
Cairoli for the lead and regaining
the red-plate. Nagl and Gajser
both remounted way down the
field (Gajser around 23rd) and
then it was just a case of how
many places they could recover.
Both riders put in an amazing
effort on a treacherous Kegums
track, eventually finishing fourth
(Gajser) and fifth (Nagl) which
was just enough to hand Gajser
the GP overall win, one point
more than Cairoli and two points
ahead of Febvre, who rounded
out the podium. Febvre held on
to the red plate, though Gajser
has now closed the champion-
ship gap to just one point.
Unlike the MXGP class, you
can pretty much predict the
MX2 results before they happen,
especially on a sandy track like
Kegums. As expected, Jeffrey
Herlings extended his win-streak
