Gajser wins qualification in St-Jean d'Angely!
Today there was a battle for tomorrow's starting grid on the French course of Saint-Jean d'Angely. Who will be the first to choose their starting gate tomorrow and who will be the last to go to the gate? That's the whole point of qualifying! This time it will be Tim Gajser who will be the first to choose his starting gate tomorrow!
The Slovenian had a turbulent start around fifth or seventh position. But in the third corner of the circuit, Gautier Paulin, who started second, fell, causing him to briefly delay Jeremy Van Horebeek, but even worse, he also took Antonio Cairoli and Julien Lieber into the crash. These three could therefore start a catch-up match to limit the damage for tomorrow.
Due to the problems behind him, Arnaud Tonus was immediately able to gain a large lead. Behind him we found Ivo Monticelli and Jeremy Van Horebeek, the Belgian who still does not seem to have completely regained the form he had at the beginning of the season, but soon had to let Tim Gajser pass. This allowed the Slovenian to hunt for the Italian pilot of the Standing Construct team, once captured, Tim Gajser set his target on Arnaud Tonus. The Swiss, who was having a good race, suddenly saw his lead of seven seconds shrink to nothing. Not much later, the Wilvo Yamaha pilot had to pass the HRC HSF Honda pilot, Tim Gajser, who was gaining steam. Tim Gajser then rode to a nice victory in this qualifying round ahead of Arnaud Tonus.
Behind these two we had a nice duel for third place. After Tim Gajser, Jeremy Van Horebeek should also have let Clément Desalle and both Rinaldi Factory Yamaha pilots pass. This trio also passed Ivo Monticelli. As a result, Clément Desalle managed to finish third ahead of Jeremy Seewer and Romain Febvre, who won this Grand Prix in 2016. Jeremy Van Horebeek, in turn, passed Ivo Monticelli's Standing Construct KTM in the end to finish sixth ahead of Ivo Monticelli. The top ten was completed by Glenn Coldenhoff at eight, Arminas Jasikonis at nine and Benoit Paturel at ten.
And what about the boys who fell at the start of the match?! Gautier Paulin finished best of the three, in eleventh place. Antonio Cairoli, in turn, may have been a little too frantic in his search for place gain and crashed again in this search. As a result, he did not get further than fourteenth place, one place better than Julien Lieber, who crossed the finish line in fifteenth place on his Kawasaki. let it come.
We found the other lowlanders with Kevin Strijbos and Brian Bogers in sixteen and seventeen places. Brian Bogers was busy with one of his better qualifying races and races tout court on a dry and hard track, but a crash made a good result go up in smoke. Micha-Boy de Waal finished twenty-fifth.
MXGP Saint-Jean d'Angely – Qualifying Race
1. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 24:45.598; 2. Arnaud Tonus (SUI, Yamaha), +0:09.521; 3. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:16.811; 4. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Yamaha), +0:20.071; 5. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), +0:25.920; 6. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Honda), +0:27.701; 7. Ivo Monticelli (ITA, KTM), +0:28.690; 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), +0:29.116; 9. Arminas Jasikonis (LTU, Husqvarna), +0:30.618; 10. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:36.729; 11. Gautier Paulin (FRA, Yamaha), +0:38.852; 12. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, Kawasaki), +0:43.941; 13. Tanel Leok (EST, Husqvarna), +0:49.493; 14. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:51.014; 15. Julien Lieber (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:52.313; 16. Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Yamaha), +1:00.426; 17. Brian Bogers (NED, Honda), +1:02.943; 18. Jordi Tixier (FRA, KTM), +1:05.753; 19. Dennis Ullrich (GER, Husqvarna), +1:08.828; 20. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, Yamaha), +1:11.288; 21. Maxime Desprey (FRA, Honda), +1:12.357; 22. Anton Gole (SWE, Yamaha), +1:12.736; 23. Samuel Bernardini (ITA, Yamaha), +1:16.538; 24. Gregory Aranda (FRA, Kawasaki), +1:17.183; 25. Micha-Boy De Waal (NED, Yamaha), +1:27.851; 26. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Husqvarna), +1:32.819; 27. Dan Houzet (FRA, KTM), +1:49.653; 28. Klemen Gercar (SLO, Husqvarna), +1:51.215; 29. Artem Guryev (RUS, Husqvarna), -1 lap(s); 30. Maxime Charlier (FRA, Husqvarna), -1 lap(s); 31. Volodymyr Tarasov (UKR, KTM), -1 lap(s); 32. Jorge Zaragoza (ESP, Yamaha), -1 lap(s); 33. Jonathan Bengtsson (SWE, KTM), -1 lap(s); 34. Petar Petrov (BUL, KTM), -6 lap(s); 35. Shaun Simpson (GBR, KTM), -10 lap(s); 36. Evgeny Bobryshev (US, Kawasaki), -11 lap(s); 37. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), -11 lap(s);
Text: Matthias Van Eeckhoven
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