2016 MXGP of León Results and Coverage | Febvre and Gajser Swap Wins
MXGP Championship Series leaders Romain Febvre and Tim Gajser traded race wins in Mexico at the 2016 MXGP of León at the Parque Metropolitano de León. Conditions were hot, and the track sits over a mile above sea level, presenting the MXGP riders with unique challenges to go with the varying, and constantly changing, soil on the one-mile track.
As it turned out, the racing was anything but spectacular, with the same five riders finishing in the same order in both races, save the two leaders. Had Gariboldi Racing/Honda’s Gajser not suffered from a broken radiator shroud, which flopped around to distract him and interfere with his left leg movement, it might have been a 1-1 day for the Slovenian, who is the defending MX2 World Champion and an MXGP rookie.
Gajser pulled a holeshot, and current MXGP Champion, Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing’s Romain Febvre, turned a mediocre jump off the gate into a 2nd place start after just a few corners. Gajser opened a lead and Febvre got to within a second of Gajser before dropping back a few seconds.
Febvre looked to be settled into 2nd place in Race 1, until Gajser damaged the shroud in a corner on Lap 14. That raised Gajser’s lap times by two to three seconds for the remainder of the race. Febvre easily passed Gajser while on Lap 14, and effortless pulled away to a four-second win.
Team HRC’s Evgeny Bobryshev ran near the front early, holding onto 2nd for the four opening laps. Febvre then passed him, with Bobryshev holding the final podium spot until Rockstar Energy/Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Max Nagl took over 3rd with just over two laps remaining.
Clement Desalle held 5th from start to finish, while Red Bull/KTM Factory Racing’s Tony Cairoli, KEMEA/Yamaha Official MX Team’s Valentine Guillod, Wilvo Virus Performance/KTM’s Shaun Simpson and Team Suzuki World MXGP’s Kevin Strijbos squabbled over 6th.
Cairoli took final possession of 6th from Guillod on Lap 9, while the other three racers repeatedly swapped positions 7th through 10th. Cairoli finished just over a second ahead of Strijbos, who was two seconds up on Simpson. At the end, Guillod had faded from the battle.
Race 2 was purely a processional event. There were no passes among the top 6 riders from Lap 1 until the race concluded after Lap 18. Gajser grabbed the holeshot and never looked back, beating Febvre by 16 seconds, while the five riders behind him slotted into their positions. Guillod, Cairoli, Red Bull/KTM Factory Racing’s Glenn Coldenhoff and Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jeremy Van Horebeek, mixed it up a bit early, but settled into their finishing positions by Lap 13.
Febvre was philosophical about his overall runner-up status, saying “I struggled a little bit with the settings on the bike, so I worked with the team late last night and today it was much better. But, I was missing something to have enough for the win, and that is just how it is.” Febvre leaves León with the same three-point gap over Gajser that he came in with. The two reigning World Champions are now well clear of the competition in the MXGP Championship Standings, with 3rd place Cairoli 45 points behind Gajser.
Photography courtesy of Youthstream.
2016 MXGP of León, Race 1 Results
- Romain Febvre (Yamaha)
- Tim Gajser (Honda), +0:04.315
- Max Nagl (Husqvarna), +0:08.295
- Evgeny Bobryshev (Honda), +0:13.662
- Clement Desalle (Kawasaki), +0:31.207
- Tony Cairoli (KTM), +0:35.377
- Kevin Strijbos (Suzuki), +0:36.711
- Shaun Simpson (KTM), +0:38.658
- Valentin Guillod (Yamaha), +0:46.175
- Glenn Coldenhoff (KTM), +0:46.828
2016 MXGP of León, Race 2 Results
- Tim Gajser
- Romain Febvre, +0:16.264
- Max Nagl, +0:27.592
- Evgeny Bobryshev, +0:36.883
- Clement Desalle, +0:45.418
- Tommy Searle (Kawasaki), +0:51.089
- Jeremy Van Horebeek (Yamaha), +0:54.127
- Valentin Guillod, +0:58.423
- Tony Cairoli, +1:13.686
- Glenn Coldenhoff, +1:16.958
2016 MXGP of León Overall Results
- Tim Gajser, 2-1, 47 points
- Romain Febvre, 1-2, 47 points
- Max Nagl, 3-3, 40 points
- Evgeny Bobryshev, 4-4, 36 points
- Clement Desalle, 5-5, 32 points
- Tony Cairoli, 6-9, 27 points
- Valentin Guillod, 9-8, 25 points
- Tommy Searle, 12-6, 24 points
- Jeremy Van Horebeek 11-7, 24 points
- Kevin Strijbos, 7-11, 24 points
2016 MXGP Championship Standings (after 5 of 18 rounds)
- Romain Febvre, 219 points (4 race wins)
- Tim Gajser, 216 (5 race wins)
- Tony Cairoli, 171
- Evgeny Bobryshev, 170
- Max Nagl, 165 (1 race win)
- Jeremy Van Horebeek, 162
- Kevin Strijbos, 127
- Shaun Simpson, 122
- Glenn Coldenhoff), 104
- Tommy Searle, 98
2016 MXGP of León Photo Gallery
