The fantastic crowd created a spine-tingling atmosphere at the wonderful Patagonia Race Track, in Villa La Angostura, Argentina, for the opening round of the FIM Motocross World Championship, where GasGas Factory Racing Jorge Prado and Monster Energy Yamaha Jago Geerts topped the box in their respective classes. Both became the new championship leaders before the first motos thanks to the new points system for qualifying races. For Prado, tomorrow will be the first time in his career carrying the red plate since he moves to the MXGP class.
In the MXGP Qualifying race, Jorge Prado took the holeshot and run away from the rest of the field to win over his GasGas teammate Mattia Guadagnini. Meanwhile, Monster Energy Yamaha´s Maxime Renaux made his way to third position. The Frenchman was the poleman early in Time Qualifying, but a rough start put him out of contention for the first position. Spaniard Rubén Fernánez from Honda HRC and Kawasaki rider Romain Febvre rounded the top 5.
On the other hand, it was a bad day for Jeremy Seewer. The Swiss had a big crash in the last stages of the race while he was running third. According to some sources, he´s OK for tomorrow. But it will be a hard day starting in the last gate position.
Jeffrey Herlings, on his first Grand Prix in over a year, put a solid ten place to earn 1 point for the championship.
In the MX2 class, we saw great battles. Jago Geerts made the holeshot, but Red Bull KTM´s debutant Andrea Adamo made things difficult for Geerts in the first laps. Then, in the last minutes, the Italian rider attacked once again to try to execute the pass over the Belgian. However, Geerts stayed in first place until the checkered flag. Simon Langenfelder went on a solid third place, while Liam Everts and Thibault Benistant fought hard in the final laps against Neestan Husqvarna riders Kay de Wolf, Roan Van de Moosdijk, and Lucas Coenen.
Check the timetable on our How to watch segment:
