Covington wins in Turkey

American Thomas Covington has won the GP of Turkey with a stunning 1-3 performance, in a day of drama in the MX2 class. The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider showed what a talent he is and won his fourth GP victory in his European career.

“Yes,” Covington said. “Been working a long time of this one and felt I should have had a few of these. My trainer and I Joel are working hard. I love the travelling around the World and racing and I will miss it in 2019 when I go back home. I got the holeshot again in the second moto, I tried to put in some solid laps, and I wanted to go 1-1, never done that before and that was my motivation and I pushed too hard on a slippery spot and thought I could get up quick and not let anyone pass me."

Second overall was Pauls Jonass and third Thomas Kjer Olsen.

The main story from Turkey though was the up and down performances by the two MX2 championship rivals, Jorge Prado and Pauls Jonass. A first moto crash while battling for the lead saw them both finish off the top spot, and then the second moto Jonass managed a moto win, and Prado was way down in seventh spot. Is Prado starting to feel the pressure of the championship?

“You know I was feeling good and managing the race,” Jonass said. “Then I felt Jorge was coming there and I didn’t see him and didn’t expect him to jump there and we touched, and I hurt my knee a little bit. We did some treatment and it should be alright for the second moto. Now we have nothing to lose, no stress I will go out and enjoy the racing. I felt good all weekend and I am close to 100% physically and I am disappointed in that first race crash and lucky to walk away from it. Second race I was fourth or fifth and made some passes. I am now happy we have two weeks to heal up the knee and I am looking forward to Assen.”

“Yes,” Prado said. “It was not the best, he crashed, and I didn’t want that to happen, but I did my best to make a pass and he didn’t see me coming and we touched. Its just racing and we will see how it goes now in the second moto. We spoke and its all alright and we are ready to go in the second moto. Sure, I felt good in the first moto.”

Prado took a nice holeshot in the second MX2 moto, but Covington passed for the lead on the first straight, then came Watson, Jonass, Lawrence, Olsen, Rodriguez, Vaessen, Vlaanderen, Renaux in 10^th.

Covington flying out front, and Prado losses a spot to Jonass in the first lap. Lawrence dropped a few places to end in seventh on lap two, and Cervelling moved into the top ten. After two laps it was Covington, Jonass, Olsen, Prado, Watson, Rodriguez, Lawrence, Vlaanderen, Vaessen and Cervellin.

Covington continued to lead Jonass and lsen, who were close enough to think about taking the lead, but not close enough to threaten. After five laps it was Covington by 1.3 seconds over Jonass.

Things got interesting around the seventh lap when Lawrence started really pushing hard and was closing on Prado, who held fifth spot. Prado looked a little tired as he struggled to keep the Aussie off him.

After eight laps the lead by Covington was 1.6 over Jonass, then Olsen, Watson, Lawrence (who got past Prado), Prado, Rodriguez, Vlaanderen, Vaessen and Cervellin.

Jonass all over Covington and a pass would make the championship points interesting. Rodriguez all over Prado in lap nine. On lap 10 Rodriguez went past Prado, but Prado answered his pass with his own to move back into sixth spot.

Covington slipped over and lost the lead to Jonass, who was suddenly looking likely to get a bunch of points in the championship battle with Prado. Olsen also went past the American. Watson all over Covington for third place in the moto, and Vlaanderen catching Prado for seventh spot.

After 16 laps it was Jonass, Olsen, Covington, Watson, Lawrence, Rodriguez, Prado, Vlaanderen, Vaessen, and Cervellin.

MX2 - Grand Prix Race 2 - Classification

1. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 34:43.374; 2. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, Husqvarna), +0:03.148; 3. Thomas Covington (USA, Husqvarna), +0:06.927; 4. Ben Watson (GBR, Yamaha), +0:08.533; 5. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, Honda), +0:21.677; 6. Anthony Rodriguez (VEN, Yamaha), +0:28.718; 7. Jorge Prado (ESP, KTM), +0:34.789; 8. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Honda), +0:37.153; 9. Bas Vaessen (NED, Honda), +0:47.812; 10. Michele Cervellin (ITA, Yamaha), +0:56.440; 11. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:58.743; 12. Henry Jacobi (GER, Husqvarna), +0:58.842; 13. Simone Furlotti (ITA, Yamaha), +1:21.081; 14. Brent Van doninck (BEL, Husqvarna), +1:32.689; 15. Jan Pancar (SLO, Yamaha), +1:39.431; 16. Richard Sikyna (SVK, KTM), +1:48.096; 17. Micha-Boy De Waal (NED, Honda), -1 lap(s); 18. Oriol Casas (ESP, Honda), -2 lap(s); 19. Mustafa Cetin (TUR, Yamaha), -4 lap(s); 20. Yasin Karaboce (TUR, Husqvarna), -4 lap(s); 21. Furkan Valimaki (TUR, KTM), -4 lap(s); 22. Emircan Senkalayci (TUR, KTM), -9 lap(s);

MX2 - GP Classification 

1. Thomas Covington (USA, HUS), 45 points; 2. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 40 p.; 3. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, HUS), 38 p.; 4. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, HON), 38 p.; 5. Ben Watson (GBR, YAM), 36 p.; 6. Jorge Prado (ESP, KTM), 34 p.; 7. Anthony Rodriguez (VEN, YAM), 29 p.; 8. Michele Cervellin (ITA, YAM), 23 p.; 9. Henry Jacobi (GER, HUS), 22 p.; 10. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, HON), 21 p.; 11. Bas Vaessen (NED, HON), 21 p.; 12. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 20 p.; 13. Simone Furlotti (ITA, YAM), 19 p.; 14. Brent Van doninck (BEL, HUS), 14 p.; 15. Jan Pancar (SLO, YAM), 10 p.; 16. Richard Sikyna (SVK, KTM), 10 p.; 17. Oriol Casas (ESP, HON), 6 p.; 18. Gustavo Pessoa (BRA, KAW), 6 p.; 19. Micha-Boy De Waal (NED, HON), 4 p.; 20. Mustafa Cetin (TUR, YAM), 4 p.; 21. Yasin Karaboce (TUR, HUS), 2 p.; 22. Furkan Valimaki (TUR, KTM), 0 p.; 23. Emircan Senkalayci (TUR, KTM), 0 p.;

2.MX2 - World Championship Classification

1. Jorge Prado (ESP, KTM), 773 points; 2. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 749 p.; 3. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN, HUS), 593 p.; 4. Ben Watson (GBR, YAM), 551 p.; 5. Thomas Covington (USA, HUS), 525 p.; 6. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, HON), 483 p.; 7. Jago Geerts (BEL, YAM), 346 p.; 8. Michele Cervellin (ITA, YAM), 337 p.; 9. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, HON), 305 p.; 10. Henry Jacobi (GER, HUS), 300 p.; 11. Davy Pootjes (NED, KTM), 218 p.; 12. Jed Beaton (AUS, KAW), 216 p.; 13. Conrad Mewse (GBR, KTM), 200 p.; 14. Brent Van doninck (BEL, HUS), 193 p.; 15. Anthony Rodriguez (VEN, YAM), 189 p.; 16. Adam Sterry (GBR, KAW), 189 p.; 17. Iker Larranaga Olano (ESP, HUS), 185 p.; 18. Bas Vaessen (NED, HON), 169 p.; 19. Samuele Bernardini (ITA, YAM), 152 p.; 20. Simone Furlotti (ITA, YAM), 130 p.; 21. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, YAM), 127 p.; 22. Marshal Weltin (USA, KAW), 107 p.; 23. Stephen Rubini (FRA, KTM), 97 p.; 24. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, KAW), 77 p.; 25. Darian Sanayei (USA, KAW), 68 p.; 26. Micha-Boy De Waal (NED, HON), 66 p.; 27. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 54 p.; 28. Richard Sikyna (SVK, KTM), 52 p.; 29. Hardi Roosiorg (EST, KTM), 48 p.; 30. Tom Koch (GER, KTM), 45 p.; 31. Alvin Östlund (SWE, YAM), 40 p.; 32. Morgan Lesiardo (ITA, KTM), 34 p.; 33. Muhammad Delvintor Alfarizi (INA, HUS), 28 p.; 34. Zachary Pichon (FRA, KTM), 25 p.; 35. Gustavo Pessoa (BRA, KAW), 24 p.; 36. Diva Ismayana (INA, HUS), 24 p.; 37. David Herbreteau (FRA, KTM), 22 p.; 38. Hilman Maksum (INA, HUS), 20 p.; 39. Mathys Boisrame (FRA, HON), 19 p.; 40. Anton Gole (SWE, YAM), 19 p.; 41. Michael Sandner (AUT, KTM), 15 p.; 42. Jy Roberts (AUS, HUS), 15 p.; 43. Roland Edelbacher (AUT, KTM), 14 p.; 44. Oriol Casas (ESP, HON), 13 p.; 45. Josh Gilbert (GBR, HON), 11 p.; 46. Jan Pancar (SLO, YAM), 10 p.; 47. Jorge Zaragoza (ESP, YAM), 8 p.; 48. Yosua Pattipi (INA, HUS), 8 p.; 49. Adrien Malaval (FRA, KTM), 6 p.; 50. Dylan Walsh (NZL, HUS), 6 p.; 51. Nicola Bertuzzi (ITA, KTM), 6 p.; 52. Mustafa Cetin (TUR, YAM), 4 p.; 53. Enzo Toriani (FRA, HUS), 3 p.; 54. Anthony Bourdon (FRA, HUS), 3 p.; 55. Martin Krc (CZE, KTM), 3 p.; 56. Alex Dimitrov (BUL, KTM), 3 p.; 57. Andrea Zanotti (SMR, HUS), 2 p.; 58. Yasin Karaboce (TUR, HUS), 2 p.; 59. Sander Agard-Michelsen (NOR, YAM), 1 p.; 60. Natanael Bres (FRA, KTM), 1 p.; 61. Kim Savaste (FIN, KTM), 1 p.; 62. Edoardo Bersanelli (ITA, YAM), 1 p.;