REDSAND PRODUCES MORE ORANGE
DOMINANCE IN MXGP
T
he slightly warmer climes of
Spain hosted the third round
of the 2018 FIM MXGP World
Championship, March 24-25,
with the RedSand venue in the
Comunitat Valenciana region pro-
viding the backdrop for another
great spectacle.
Once again, the racing was
dominated by KTM riders, as
they continued their sweep of
the MXGP and MX2 classes. So
far this year we've had 12 motos
across the two classes and all
the MX2 races have been won by
Pauls Jonass, with Antonio Cairoli
and Jeffrey Herlings evenly split-
ting the MXGP races.
While the previous four races
started off with a Cairoli holeshot,
for the first moto at least it was
Romain Febvre on his YZ450F
who grabbed the early lead.
What was even more surpris-
ing was that both KTMs were
midpack around the first turn,
but that changed very quickly
as Cairoli somehow managed to
pass his way into second by the
time they came around to end
the first lap. Herlings was a lot
slower to move through the field,
only reaching second position
with four laps remaining, but by
that stage, the gap was too great
to his Italian rival and he had to
settle for second. Febvre tried to
resist Herlings' efforts for as long
as possible but eventually had
to settle for third, while Clement
Desalle closed right up for fourth.
In the second race, usual busi-
ness was resumed with Cairoli
taking his fifth holeshot award of
the season, only to be surprised
by Gautier Paulin, who snatched
the lead for the first few laps.
As Cairoli looked to pass
Paulin, Herlings had made a
reasonable start before crash-
ing and dropping back. By the
time the first lap ended, Herlings
was back in ninth place, so once
again, he was left with unenviable
task of passing everyone ahead
of him (including Cairoli) in order
to win the overall. He was soon
IN
THE
WIND
P32
Tony Cairoli (222) and Jeffrey
Herlings continued their back-
and-forth battle for the MXGP
Championship. This time it
was Cairoli's day.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
RAY
ARCHER
