2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Results | Another Double For Gajser

2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Results - Cairoli and Gajser
Gajser, Cairoli, and Slovenian fans

2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Results and Coverage | Gajser Extends Lead

2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Results - Cairoli and Gajser
Gajser, Cairoli, and Slovenian fans

With reigning MXGP World Champion Romain Febvre (Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing) still sidelined with a head injury suffered at the previous round, there was a question if 2016 MXGP Championship Series leader Tim Gajser (Team Gariboldi Honda) would have anyone to keep him honest at the Fullback MXGP of Lombardia-Italy.

In Race 1, Gajser dominated. He took the holeshot with Max Nagl (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing) right behind him. However, Gajser quickly pulled away and was never challenged.

2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Results - Gajser
Tim Gajser

Nagl faded in the heat, saying “I did my best and closely followed Tim Gajser for the first 22 minutes of the race, but then I felt the heat getting on me.” In the last four laps, Nagl dropped two positions, with Clement Desalle (Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team) taking second on Lap 14 and Gautier Paulin (Team HRC) knocking Nagl off the Race 1 podium on the final lap.

Jeremy van Horebeek (Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing) started eighth, and worked his way up to fifth, passing Qualifying Race winner Evgeny Bobryshev (Team HRC) for the spot after Bobryshev had held it for 10 laps.

After being passed by Van Horebeek, Bobryshev lost the sixth spot when hometown favorite Toni Cairoli (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) passed him with three laps to go. Another rider who faded was Cairoli’s teammate, Glenn Coldenhoff, who worked his way from third on Lap 1 down to eighth by Lap 12, which he held to the end.

Race 2, however, held some surprises with eight-time World Champion Cairoli taking the holeshot. Gajser quickly positioned himself behind Cairoli and began applying pressure.

Over the first two-thirds of the race, Gajser made two serious attempts to pass Cairoli, showing him a wheel. The response from the crowd was a roar, as Gajser had a huge contingent of fans from his neighboring home country of Slovenia who refused to be drowned out by the Italians supporting Cairoli.

In both of Gajser’s attempts to take the lead Cairoli responded aggressively, blocking Gajser multiple times in a way Gajser later described as “dirty”.

With five minutes remaining on the clock, Gajser bested Cairoli when the two banged bars on a fast straight, allow Gajser to put a permanent pass on Cairoli in the following corner.

2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Results - Cairoli
Tony Cairoli

Cairoli, who is recovering from a wrist injury, quickly lost ground to the charging Gajser who went on to win Race 2 convincingly, giving him another 1-1 round.

“It’s just been an amazing day today,” Gajser said. “In the first race I made life easy for myself with the holeshot, and then I could make a little gap and control the race. In the second race it was different. Tony was pushing really hard until the finish and I think we were both so tired at the end because we both really wanted to win in front of our fans. Every time I made a move he came back at me, and I was almost ready to settle for second, but I thought ‘give it one more try,’ and that time I could make it stick and pull away enough.”

“I’m so, so happy to have taken that win and the overall victory here,” Gajser continued. “It feels like a home GP, again, because of all the fans and all the support here, and I’m so thankful that motocross in Slovenia is growing and more and more people are getting interested in it. I want to thank the team for the job they did this weekend because it was incredible. We’ve been dreaming of races like this and now it’s all coming true. It’s a special win that I will remember. I really want to watch it back on the TV now to see how exciting it was for everyone else!”

2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Results - Paulin
Gautier Paulin

Cairoli, who was set to take a spot on the overall podium when he was leading, made a mistake on the penultimate lap, allowing Paulin by, moving Cairoli back to third for Race 2. Paulin’s 3-2 combination earned him a second place on the podium, while Desalle secured the final spot finishing 2-4. Desalle finished fourth by passing Coldenhoff for the position on Lap 9.

With Febvre out, Cairoli moved into second place in the MXGP World Championship Standings, a daunting 92 points behind Gajser. Febvre is 32 points behind Cairoli in third, and has four weeks off before the next round at the MXGP of Czech Republic at Loket.

Two-time Monster Energy Supercross Champion Chad Reed (Monster Energy Yamaha) had a disappointing time at the MXGP of Lombardia-Italy. He retired early in Race 1 while circulating in 22nd place, and didn’t line up for Race 2. The week before at the MXGP of Great Britain, Reed had a 14-17 meeting, finishing 13th overall.

Photography courtesy of Youthstream

2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Race 1 Results

  1. Tim Gajser (Honda), 35:01.739
  2. Clement Desalle (Kawasaki), +0:04.460
  3. Gautier Paulin (Honda), +0:07.423
  4. Max Nagl (Husqvarna), +0:11.147
  5. Jeremy van Horebeek (Yamaha), +0:16.639
  6. Tony Cairoli (KTM), +0:25.874
  7. Evgeny Bobryshev (Honda), +0:33.524
  8. Glenn Coldenhoff (KTM), +0:38.665
  9. Valentin Guillod (Yamaha), +0:44.531
  10. Jose Butron (KTM), +0:48.997

2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Race 2 Results

  1. Tim Gajser (Honda), 35:17.922
  2. Gautier Paulin (Honda), +0:09.544
  3. Tony Cairoli (KTM), +0:17.480
  4. Clement Desalle (Kawasaki), +0:25.145
  5. Glenn Coldenhoff (KTM), +0:33.911
  6. Evgeny Bobryshev (Honda), +0:37.557
  7. Jeremy van Horebeek (Yamaha), +0:38.142
  8. Valentin Guillod (Yamaha), +0:54.421
  9. Jose Butron (KTM), +0:59.148
  10. Jordi Tixier (Kawasaki), +1:02.868

2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Overall Results

  1. Tim Gajser (1-1), 50 points
  2. Gautier Paulin (3-2), 42
  3. Clement Desalle (2-4), 40
  4. Tony Cairoli (6-3), 35
  5. Jeremy van Horebeek (5-7), 30
  6. Glenn Coldenhoff (8-5), 29
  7. Evgeny Bobryshev (7-6), 29
  8. Valentin Guillod (9-8), 25
  9. Jose Butron (10-9), 23
  10. Max Nagl (4-16), 23

2016 MXGP Championship Standings (after 12 of 18 rounds)

  1. Tim Gajser, 532 points (13 race wins)
  2. Tony Cairoli, 440 (3 race wins)
  3. Romain Febvre, 408 (7 race wins)
  4. Max Nagl, 401 (1 race win)
  5. Evgeny Bobryshev, 396
  6. Jeremy van Horebeek, 351
  7. Valentin Guillod, 267
  8. Glenn Coldenhoff, 230
  9. Shaun Simpson, 212
  10. Clement Desalle, 210
  11. Kevin Strijbos, 204
  12. Tommy Searle, 189
  13. Christophe Charlier, 184
  14. Jose Butron, 173
  15. Gautier Paulin, 165

2016 MXGP of Lombardia-Italy Photo Gallery

 

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