Posted on February 04, 2018
Red Bull KTM Factory rider Antonio Cairoli is simply ageless as he rolled into another season, with a 1-1 result in the opening International race of the season. The Sicilian was perfect in everything he did today, from his rocket starts, to his beautiful sand riding skills. While many people are looking at Jeffrey Herlings as the favourite for 2018, the nine time world champion has other ideas
Herlings as mentioned previously crashed in the opening moto, DNFed, and didn’t qualify for the superfinal, but no doubt, with only minor injuries, he will be back and arrive in Argentina healthy.
Max Anstie went 2-2 to show his MXoN performance was a good indication of what he is capable of. Also to shine on the day was Jeremy Van Horebeek with 3-4 results, and Romain Febvre with 5-3 results.
Cairoli once again led from the start of the superfinal, ahead of Anstie, Van Horebeek, Febvre, Jonass, Bernardini, Vaessen, Ostlund, Leok, Ravera, Coldenhoff, Paulin, Faccetti, Vlaanderen and Lawrence in 15th.
Febvre passed Van Horebeek to move into third place and Jonass remained in fifth place, while Lawrence dropped back to 38th. Nagl out early on his TM.
A similar race to the first one as Cairoli controlled the action, just as he so often does. A bit of an anti-climax with Herlings not competing in this race, and lets hope it isn’t all on way traffic in 2018, like the start of 2017.
Surely Herlings will recover from his minor injuries and be hungry to turn the tables on the defending champion.
Amazing ride by Jonass in fifth place, with the next best MX2 guy is Vaesson in ninth, and Bernardini in 14th.
Also good to see two British flags in the top six, as its an Italian leading a Brit, then a Frenchman, Belgian, Latvian, Brit, Swiss, Estonian, Dutchman, and Frenchman in 10th. International this event sure is.
After six laps its Cairoli by less than a second over Anstie who is doing quicker lap times than the Italian and Febvre in third was also clicking off quicker lap times than Cairoli. Van Horebeek was 10 seconds back from the leader and Jonass a long way from the Belgian.
Cairoli though turned up the speed and got to six seconds ahead of Ansti, while four Yamahas followed in Febvre, Van Horebeek, Seewer and Simpson, with Jonass dropping back to 8th place.
Late in the race Seewer and Simpson dropped well back in the official results.
Superfinal - Results
1 222 CAIROLI Antonio ITA MX1 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 16 30:42.326
2 99 ANSTIE Max GBR MX1 Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing Husqvarna 16 30:45.507
3 461 FEBVRE Romain FRA MX1 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGPYamaha 16 31:04.644
4 89 VAN HOREBEEK Jeremy BEL MX1 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGPYamaha 16 31:41.326
5 21 PAULIN Gauter FRA MX1 Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing Husqvarna 16 31:50.346
6 1 JONASS Pauls LAT MX2 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MX2 KTM 16 32:01.271
7 7 LEOK Tanel EST MX1 Husqvarna 16 32:15.946
8 911 TIXIER Jordi FRA MX1 KTM 16 32:17.893
9 259 COLDENHOFF Glenn NED MX1 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 16 32:28.399
10 98 VAESSEN Bas NED MX2 Honda 15 30:47.911