| Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP just enjoyed a superb outing at the Grand Prix of Citta di Faenza in Italy, as Jeremy Seewer romped to a powerful race victory at round seven of the 2020 FIM Motocross World Championship. Seewer ended up third overall on the day, after a small fall in moto two.
Run at the same Faenza circuit that hosted the sixth round on Sunday, riders were already familiar with the layout and dirt as qualifying started on Wednesday morning. Seewer posted the third-quickest time in that session, so set himself up well for the motos. Fast progress was made after starting inside of the top five in the first premier-class moto, as he quickly moved up to second and went to work on the race leader. It did not take long for him to slide past and it was plain sailing from there, as he had built a fifteen second lead when the race concluded.
| The second moto was tougher though – a mediocre start left him outside of the top ten with a considerable amount of work to do. Seewer put his head down and got to work, eventually edging towards the top five with lap times that made him the fastest rider on track. A small mistake before the uphill waves halted his progress though, so he was forced to settle for seventh in the moto and third overall on the day. Fourth is the position that Seewer now occupies in the championship standings, with forty-six points separating him from the current championship leader.
Gautier Paulin had a tricky time of it, as a mistake on lap one of the first stint left him facing an uphill battle. After ending that first lap on the cusp of the top twenty, he pulled through to eighth in what was a commendable effort. That was followed up with a tenth in moto two, which put him in ninth overall on the day. Eighth is the position that he occupies in the championship standings. Arnaud Tonus attempted to push through the pain of an ankle injury and salvaged two points in the first moto, but exited moto two prematurely. Twenty-third overall was his final ranking.
There will be another quick turnaround now, as the eighth race of the current term will be run at that same Faenza layout on Sunday.
| Jeremy Seewer: “First race was super good. I felt really comfortable out there, super smooth, didn’t make any mistakes and just felt great for my first MXGP win. It feels amazing! I was already focused for the second moto, because I felt great today, but then it didn’t go my way. I can’t explain why, my bike dropped RPM off the start and almost stopped. We need to check there if it was something that was my fault or if it is the bike, but we will see later. I passed a few guys but got stuck behind Clement Desalle and lost my rhythm a bit and then I made a mistake chasing Romain [Febvre]. It was still nice to be on the podium but, again, today the win was almost there. Now we look to Sunday.”
Gautier Paulin: “I didn’t have a good day today. I am not happy with how it went. In the first moto I had a big mistake in turn two; I jumped long, slid on a rut and went sideways off the track. I rejoined around seventeenth and came back to eighth. In the second race, I made some small mistakes and found it hard to find my base. I am definitely going to take some rest now and do my best to regroup for the third round here. I definitely want to do good and I am looking forward to it, because I have everything I need. My bike is working awesome, so I am ready to have a good third round in Faenza. This is all I need!”
| Arnaud Tonus: “I tried to race today with a hurt ankle. It was not really ideal. I couldn’t really do what I wanted on the bike and I was really struggling to find my rhythm. I tried to find a way to ride without it hurting too much, but it didn’t go so well and I decided to stop the second moto to try and recover and see what we can do next.” |
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