MX2: More mistakes cost Geerts as Vialle takes Limburg victory

Round 14 of the 2020 MX2 World Championship saw the paddock remain in Lommel for the second round of the Belgian triple header, this time the Grand Prix of Limburg. Jago Geerts qualified on pole position for the 250 class, while Tom Vialle came into this one with a 53-point championship advantage. 

Already before the first race the gate was down two riders, with Conrad Mewse and Mathys Boisrame both not making the start. Mewse was out due to tonsillitis and should be back for the third Lommel round on Sunday, while Boisrame was still suffering with vision problems following a concussion and the Frenchman’s season ends with that.

Jago Geerts made the holeshot in the first moto, taking the early lead ahead of Tom Vialle and Roan van de Moosdijk. Thomas Kjer Olsen was fourth for the first half-lap, but a crash for the #19 dropped him out of contention. 

Van de Moosdijk was able to stay with Geerts and Vialle for the first half of the race, but his chances were ended thanks to a mechanical issue. That left Vialle and Geerts out front by almost 20 seconds over Stephen Rubini. Those 20 seconds proved important for Geerts a couple of minutes later, as the #193 made yet another mistake while fighting with Vialle and he gifted the lead to the championship leader, falling to second and 12 seconds off the lead. 

From there the comeback from the Belgian was phenomenal, catching Vialle with five minutes to go and then executing a move on the Frenchman perfectly with three laps to go. It was what he wanted the first moto in the second Mantova round to be, when he caught Vialle after crashing but then crashed again as he was trying to pass his rival. This time, he made the move stick, and then pulled away to crush the #28’s spirit, at least for the remainder of the first moto, and take his 12th race win of the season. 

Vialle rolled off somewhat late on, finishing 10.862 seconds behind Geerts. Were the championship tighter, it would be interesting to see how Vialle played it, but with 53 points coming into Limburg over Geerts, there was little point pushing too close to the limit, as Geerts had done to rectify his error, to stay with the Yamaha rider. 

Behind Vialle was a 28-second gap to the second factory Yamaha of Ben Watson, who had an eventful first moto, making a bad start before recovering his way back to third place from starting outside the top 10. The Brit ended up relatively alone on track, though, with that 28-seconds gap up to Vialle in front of him, and 15 seconds back to Ruben Fernandez who equalled his best race result of the season with fourth place, ahead of Isak Gifting who did the same with a season-best of fifth for the GASGAS fill-in.

Stephen Rubini was running in fourth place for much of the race after Watson’s charge was completed but a crash for the Frenchman dropped him to sixth, as he finished ahead of Thomas Kjer Olsen who ended up seventh after his crash early on. Maxime Renaux was eighth after starting outside the top 20, ahead of Alvin Ostlund and Jed Beaton who was also back there with Renaux at the start but fought back to complete the top 10 of the first moto.

Cyril Genot took 11th, ahead of Nathan Renkens who was fighting inside the top 10 until a crash dropped him to 12th, ahead of Bas Vaessen, Bailey Malkiewicz and Alberto Forato, the Italian finishing 15th after suffering a similar fate to Renkens moments before the #83 suffered it himself.

16th over the finish for the first race was Michael Sandner, after he too spent the first part of the race fighting inside the top 10. The Austrian was ahead of Josh Gilbert, Petr Polak, Ashton Dickinson and Glen Meier who completed the top 20. 

Moto two saw Jago Geerts take the holeshot ahead of Roan van de Moosdijk, although the #39 soon took the lead from Geerts, while Tom Vialle was making his way through to third at the end of the first lap, passing Isak Gifting to enter the top three after a good start for the Swede. 

After 17 minutes, van de Moosdijk’s time at the front was done and he quickly dropped to third behind Geerts and Vialle. He was back up to second almost just as quickly, though, courtesy of yet another crash for Geerts just a few corners after he took the lead. 

Geerts’ crash not only put van de Moosdijk back up to second, but also Vialle to the lead of course.

It was a lead that Vialle would not relinquish, as he took his 12th race win of the season to secure his sixth overall win of the season. The Frenchman’s winning margin in the end was just under three seconds ahead of Ben Watson who had another brilliant ride to come from the lower reaches of the top 10 to finish second at the end, passing van de Moosdijk on the final lap to demote the Dutchman back to third place. 

Maxime Renaux made it two Yamahas in the top four as he took advantage of a crash for Isak Gifting which dropped the Swede from third to fifth. Gifting nearly lost fifth for himself as well thanks to a crash in the final minutes. The #517 rejoined right in the middle of the battle between Thomas Kjer Olsen and Jago Geerts, but was quickly able to clear Olsen and escape with fifth place. 

Olsen was able to fend off Geerts for sixth, the Belgian taking seventh instead as he saw the championship slip yet further away. Bas Vaessen was eight seconds behind the #193 in eighth, ahead of Ruben Fernandez and Jed Beaton who completed the top 10. 

In 11th place was Alvin Ostlund, from Stephen Rubini, Cyril Genot, Nathan Renkens and Jan Pancar who completed the top 15; while Morgan Lesiardo was 16th ahead of Petr Polak, Johannes Nermann, Bailey Malkiewicz and Kevin Horgmo who completed the top 20. 

For the overall, the crash of Geerts promoted Vialle to the top step of the podium for the sixth time in 2020 as he extended his championship lead to 61 points. There are still 200 points up for grabs in the championship with four rounds to go, but it is continuing to look increasingly difficult for Geerts to enter next season with a championship to defend.

Geerts did still end up on the podium, though. Before Sunday, the Kemea squad that now runs the factory Yamaha MX2 team had never had a double podium, yet now they have had two in the space of three days, with Geerts taking third overall, one step below his teammate, Ben Watson, who took his third overall podium of the season by going 3-2 for second overall. 

We have seen this year that while Vialle and Geerts are quite equal in terms of speed, they are quite opposite in terms of effectiveness and consistency. Each week, both fight each other on track at the front of races, and often they are a step ahead of the rest of the field as far as outright speed is concerned. And yet every week it is now almost expected that Geerts will make a mistake. Today we saw that when he makes a mistake it is not impossible for him to recover and still take the moto win, such is his speed, and yet we also saw the opposite side, which is that the continuous mistakes that leave the #193 on the floor are costing him the championship. 

Isak Gifting’s two crashes in the second moto – the first one in particular – cost him a shot at the podium, but in any case 6-5 is the #517’s best scorecard in MX2 and fourth his best overall result. Watch out for him on Sunday because there is little doubt he will see it as perhaps his best chance for a podium before the end of the season. 

Maxime Renaux was fifth overall after a steady day for the Frenchman, something we have become used to seeing from the #959: not incomprehensibly fast but strong enough and smooth enough to rack up the points consistently. Today he was ahead of Ruben Fernandez in the overall, the Spaniard taking sixth ahead of Thomas Kjer Olsen, Stephen Rubini, Jed Beaton and Alvin Ostlund who completed the top 10.