Honda HRC’s Valerio Lata took his first qualification victory of his career as he led from start to finish to comprehensively win the MXGP of Germany MX2 qualification race. Throughout the day, the Honda CRF250R had been looking menacing and once he grabbed the holeshot, he powered away from the competition and controlled the race to take the maximum 10 points and take first gate-pick for the GP scoring motos tomorrow.
A second-place in the morning free practice session at the rutted Teutschenthal circuit set the tone for Lata, which he quickly backed up with by placing fourth in the timed session. With the gate-pick favouring the inside, fourth gave him a good chance come out in the top five, but utilising every horsepower of his Honda CRF250R, he swept around the first turn in first place and immediately set about creating a gap to the chasing pack.
A blistering first laptime three seconds faster than the field gave him the buffer he needed, which he then managed like a seasoned professional to take the chequered flag. This was Lata’s first qualification race win, and the first for Honda HRC since they started paying out championship points and once he crossed the line it sparked scenes of celebration throughout the team. The goal now is to help him do the same again tomorrow when 50 points are at stake and a possible first podium of 2025 is within his grasp.
What a great race, I’m so happy right now with how it went. The perfect moto. I got the holeshot, put in a really good first lap about three seconds faster than in second and just controlled that gap for the rest of the race. It was a great feeling to be riding round in first place, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and now I want to try and do it again tomorrow. A big thank you to the team for all their work, it has been getting better and better and now I’ve got the first gate-pick which hopefully means I can get another holeshot.
