Team HRC Honda’s Mitch Evans impressed as he finished in fourth place in the second moto at round seven of the MXGP. Evans posted the fastest laptime of the race and reminding everyone just what he is capable of when he is fully fit.
In what was a great moto for Team HRC, Evans came extremely close to making it a Honda one-two as the Australian fought for 35 minutes to score his best race finish since round one in Great Britain. Sitting in third at the halfway point of the moto, the #43 tried his best to follow his teammate home, even posting the fastest lap of the race, but it wasn’t quite to be as he had to settle for nine-four scores for seventh overall. It was still another encouraging step for the rider in his first season in the MXGP class as he comes back a shoulder injury sustained in round two of the series, and with a third race on Sunday before three rounds in Mantova at a track he won at in pre-season, he will be looking for even more improvement in the coming weeks.
“Very good day which started off well in timed practice, where I was in first position for awhile in the session. That was a cool feeling but I knew the racing was the main focus. In the first moto I got a really good start but struggled a bit with arm-pump due to probably pushing too hard at the beginning. I wasn’t riding myself and ended up in ninth which I wasn’t too happy about, but I put it behind me for moto two.
I didn’t get quite such a good start in race two but I kept pushing the whole moto and made some passes and I was battling with the front guys, which was very satisfying to be back up there and running their pace. I was really happy with how that race went, finishing fourth and now I’m looking forward to getting some more top fives when we race again on Sunday.”
Mitch Evans
RACE ONE
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Points | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SEEWER Jeremy | 91 | SWI | 25 | Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team | Yamaha | 35:00.143 |
| 2 | PRADO GARCIA Jorge | 61 | SPA | 22 | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 0:15.681 |
| 3 | FEBVRE Romain | 3 | FRA | 20 | Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing | Kawasaki | 0:34.451 |
| 4 | CAIROLI Antonio | 222 | ITA | 18 | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 0:36.731 |
| 5 | GAJSER Tim | 243 | SLO | 16 | Team HRC – MXGP | Honda | 0:40.143 |
| 6 | COLDENHOFF Glenn | 259 | NDL | 15 | Standing Construct GasGas Factory Racing Team | GasGas | 0:46.374 |
| 7 | LUPINO Alessandro | 77 | ITA | 14 | Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing | Yamaha | 0:48.024 |
| 8 | PAULIN Gautier | 21 | FRA | 13 | Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team | Yamaha | 0:49.952 |
| 9 | EVANS Mitch | 43 | AUS | 12 | Team HRC – MXGP | Honda | 0:50.234 |
| 10 | JASIKONIS Arminas | 27 | LTU | 11 | Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing | Husqvarna | 1:00.342 |
| 11 | DESALLE Clement | 25 | BEL | 10 | Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing | Kawasaki | 1:06.314 |
| 12 | VLAANDEREN Calvin | 10 | NDL | 9 | Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing | Yamaha | 1:10.876 |
| 13 | VAN HOREBEEK Jeremy | 89 | BEL | 8 | Honda SR Motoblouz | Honda | 1:18.038 |
| 14 | JACOBI Henry | 29 | GER | 7 | Yamaha SM Action – M.C. Migliori | Yamaha | 1:24.124 |
| 15 | BOGERS Brian | 189 | NDL | 6 | Marchetti Racing Team KTM | KTM | 1:27.415 |
| 16 | TIXIER Jordi | 911 | FRA | 5 | Team VHR KTM Racing | KTM | 1:33.276 |
| 17 | RAUCHENECKER Pascal | 281 | AUT | 4 | Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing | Husqvarna | 1:37.967 |
| 18 | WALSH Dylan | 53 | NZL | 3 | JM Honda Racing | Honda | 1:40.785 |
| 19 | TONUS Arnaud | 4 | SWI | 2 | Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team | Yamaha | 1:43.189 |
| 20 | LAPUCCI Nicholas | 211 | ITA | 1 | Steels – Dr. Jack Racing | KTM | 1:44.529 |
RACE TWO
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Points | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GAJSER Tim | 243 | SLO | 25 | Team HRC – MXGP | Honda | 35:30.119 |
| 2 | PRADO GARCIA Jorge | 61 | SPA | 22 | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 0:04.289 |
| 3 | CAIROLI Antonio | 222 | ITA | 20 | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 0:05.114 |
| 4 | EVANS Mitch | 43 | AUS | 18 | Team HRC – MXGP | Honda | 0:07.098 |
| 5 | COLDENHOFF Glenn | 259 | NDL | 16 | Standing Construct GasGas Factory Racing Team | GasGas | 0:08.679 |
| 6 | FEBVRE Romain | 3 | FRA | 15 | Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing | Kawasaki | 0:13.530 |
| 7 | SEEWER Jeremy | 91 | SWI | 14 | Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team | Yamaha | 0:14.697 |
| 8 | JASIKONIS Arminas | 27 | LTU | 13 | Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing | Husqvarna | 0:39.999 |
| 9 | DESALLE Clement | 25 | BEL | 12 | Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing | Kawasaki | 0:43.128 |
| 10 | PAULIN Gautier | 21 | FRA | 11 | Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team | Yamaha | 0:48.777 |
| 11 | VAN HOREBEEK Jeremy | 89 | BEL | 10 | Honda SR Motoblouz | Honda | 1:03.589 |
| 12 | LUPINO Alessandro | 77 | ITA | 9 | Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing | Yamaha | 1:10.340 |
| 13 | BOGERS Brian | 189 | NDL | 8 | Marchetti Racing Team KTM | KTM | 1:13.497 |
| 14 | RAUCHENECKER Pascal | 281 | AUT | 7 | Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing | Husqvarna | 1:14.811 |
| 15 | LEOK Tanel | 7 | EST | 6 | A1M Husqvarna | Husqvarna | 1:36.357 |
| 16 | TIXIER Jordi | 911 | FRA | 5 | Team VHR KTM Racing | KTM | 1:38.874 |
| 17 | COVINGTON Thomas | 64 | USA | 4 | Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing | Yamaha | 1:41.873 |
| 18 | BOBRYSHEV Evgeny | 777 | RUS | 3 | PAR Homes RFX Husqvarna | Husqvarna | 1:48.180 |
| 19 | PETROV Petar | 152 | BUL | 2 | Team VRT Nordpesca Holland | KTM | 1:49.369 |
| 20 | WALSH Dylan | 53 | NZL | 1 | JM Honda Racing | Honda | 1:52.858 |