Cairoli wins the qualifying series in V'waard with fingers in the nose!
Antonio Cairoli and sand courts, what was once a wicked marriage is now one of roses. The Italian managed to win the qualifying series with his fingers in his nose this afternoon to determine tomorrow's starting order. From start to finish the Sicilian was at the head of the field and no one, absolutely no one, was on par with the old man. Not even at the start, where he immediately made it clear with a nice holeshot that struggling was a waste of time for the competition.
After Antonio Cairoli, Tim Gajser finished easily second ahead of Belgian private pilot Jeremy Van Horebeek. The Motoblouz SR Honda pilot did not start great, but was soon able to advance with some beautiful and daring overtaking actions. A third place was a nice reward for the Hexis Energy supported driver.
Who else made himself noticed was Arminas Jasikonis. The Lithuanian bear started disastrously but showed with very fast lap times that he could well be a podium candidate for tomorrow. Today he moved from twelve place to fifth place, behind Standing Construct pilot Max Anstie.
In principle, the other lowlanders did not do badly. With Clément Desalle at eight, Glenn Coldenhoff at nine, we had two more lowlanders in the top ten in addition to Jeremy Van Horebeek. Just outside the top ten we found Julien Lieber who dropped back to fourteenth place after a crash and Brian Bogers who is still looking for speed at fifteenth. Still, we expect more from all four of these boys, even though they are all struggling with their problems. For example, Julien Lieber fell in a stupid way, but it cost him a lot of places, in addition, Clément Desalle has to deal with a hand injury, Glenn Coldenhoff had a poor preparation due to serious injuries sustained in a training crash in Lommel and Brian Bogers is out after a year. From inactivity the intensity of the world championship is no longer normal. As already mentioned, he is searching and that is his contract year...
In addition to these well-known names, we saw Micha-Boy De Waal qualify twentieth, meaning the Dutchman did six places better than Lars van Berkel, who in turn was ahead of Sven van der Mierden. This qualifying series was not a success for Nathan Renkens. The young man crashed hard and lay next to the course for several laps, but in one of the images we saw that he was conscious. As soon as we have reliable information about his condition, we will let you know!
MXGP Valkenswaard – Qualifying Series
1. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), 24:19.045; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:04.551; 3. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Honda), +0:15.172; 4. Max Anstie (GBR, KTM), +0:19.774; 5. Arminas Jasikonis (LTU, Husqvarna), +0:30.289; 6. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Yamaha), +0:35.696; 7. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Yamaha), +0:38.974; 8. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:44.593; 9. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), +0:48.604; 10. Ivo Monticelli (ITA, KTM), +0:50.204; 11. Arnaud Tonus (SUI, Yamaha), +0:50.936; 12. Jordi Tixier (FRA, KTM), +0:56.916; 13. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), +0:59.806; 14. Julien Lieber (BEL, Kawasaki), +1:02.003; 15. Brian Bogers (NED, Honda), +1:02.977; 16. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Husqvarna), +1:04.434; 17. Tanel Leok (EST, Husqvarna), +1:04.536; 18. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, Kawasaki), +1:05.114; 19. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +1:06.475; 20. Micha-Boy De Waal (NED, Yamaha), +1:20.779; 21. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, Yamaha), +1:21.102; 22. Jose Butron (ESP, KTM), +1:22.473; 23. Anton Gole (SWE, Yamaha), +1:26.194; 24. Petar Petrov (BUL, KTM), +1:27.977; 25. Gert Kristinov (EST, Kawasaki), +1:29.256; 26. Lars van Berkel (DOWN, Husqvarna), +1:32.060; 27. Sven Van der Mierden (DOWN, Yamaha), +1:33.057; 28. Jonathan Bengtsson (SWE, KTM), +1:59.901; 29. Tom Koch (GER, KTM), -1 lap(s); 30. Jeffrey Dewulf (BEL, KTM), -1 lap(s); 31. Artem Guryev (RUS, Husqvarna), -1 lap(s); 32. Harry Kullas (EST, Honda), -6 lap(s); 33. Nathan Renkens (BEL, KTM), -6 lap(s); 34. Matiss Car (LAT, Husqvarna), -8 lap(s); 35. Volodymyr Tarasov (UKR, KTM), -12 lap(s);
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