MX2: Watson triumphs in final race of the year

The 18th and final round of the 2020 MX2 World Championship took place in Pietramurata for the MXGP of Garda Trentino. Tom Vialle had already wrapped up the championship at the previous round and Roan van de Moosdijk was the fastest rider in time practice.

It was the newly crowned champion, Vialle, who took the holeshot on the start ahead of Maxime Renaux, and already by the end of the first lap the gap between the two Frenchmen was stretching.

After 10 minutes, Vialle’s lead was approaching 10 seconds as the field seemed to be bottling up behind Renaux. 

The #959 was able to pick up his pace, though, as he pulled himself, Jago Geerts and Ben Watson away from those battling behind. 

At half distance in the race, Vialle’s lead was up to 14 seconds, but in the last laps the #28 backed the pace off to mean that his margin of victory was six seconds as he took his 14th race win of the season, matching the tally of Geerts. 

Closest to Vialle was his countryman, Renaux, who put in another defensive masterclass to hold off the two factory Yamaha riders, Geerts and Watson, to take second place. 

Geerts was unable to hold off Watson for third place and gave best to his teammate with five minutes left on the clock, and although Watson was able to pressure Renaux he, like his teammate, was unable to make a pass. 

Geerts came under pressure towards the end from Stephen Rubini, but was finally able to hold on to fourth place, ahead of the #118 who took his equal best finish of the season with fifth. 

Rubini himself was coming under pressure at the very end of the race from Isak Gifting, but the Swede was unable to find a way through. Still, sixth place is a much better result for the #517 than that which he took midweek, when he went 18-18 for 19th overall. Of course, that was never representative of Gifting’s speed, but it will have been helpful nonetheless for the GASGAS rider to find himself fighting for the top positions again. 

Gifting was under pressure for most of the race from Jed Beaton, who finished less than one second behind the Swedish rider, but ahead of Conrad Mewse, Roan van de Moosdijk and Ruben Fernandez, the Spaniard completing the top 10 despite being caught up in a first turn pile-up. 

Morgan Lesiardo was 11th, ahead of Alvin Ostlund and Thomas Kjer Olsen who crashed twice before stalling in what was a terrible moto for the Dane. Behind the #19 were Jan Pancar and Bailey Malkiewicz who completed the top 15; while Nathan Renkens was 16th from Petr Polak, Jakub Teresak, Michael Sandner and Josh Gilbert who completed the top 20 of the first moto. 

The second moto began without Roan van de Moosdijk and therefore absent of any F&H Kawasakis with Mathys Boisrame and Mikkel Haarup having been out since Lommel and Mantova, respectively. 

Race two also began similarly, in some ways, to that of Wednesday, with the Yamahas starting well – Ben Watson with the holeshot ahead of Jago Geerts, and MAxime Renaux soon made it a YZ250F 1-2-3 – and Tom Vialle out of contention in the second turn as he went down in the inside rut.

The Yamahas were able to pull away at the front, and they dropped Renaux who was soon overcome by Jed Beaton as the battle for third in the championship was born out directly on track.

With a 3-1 scorecard, if the order of the two Yamahas at the front remained the same, with Watson ahead of Geerts, the #919 would take his second Grand Prix win. However, Geerts was not lying down, and as the clock dipped below 20 minutes the battle for the moto and overall win was on. 

Further back, Vialle was charging and was up to eighth within 10 minutes as he sought to get himself back on the overall podium. Soon he was in a battle with Renaux, Ruben Fernandez and Thomas Kjer Olsen. Having cleared Fernandez and Olsen, he was chasing his compatriot, Renaux, but an attempted pass in one of the switchbacks in the middle of the lap saw the #28 drop a foot as he lost his balance, Renaux having cut his nose off on the entry. 

Fernandez took advantage as Olsen was forced to stop as well, and took two places, back up to sixth. 

It did not last long, though, as a crash on the next lap left the #70 with a damaged Yamaha, and he pulled in soon after. That promoted Vialle back up to sixth, and was eventually back on the tail of Renaux. However, when the #28 went through he immediately crashed, although he was able to hang on to sixth ahead of Olsen. 

The battle at the front between the teammates was reaching boiling point with seven minutes to go as Geerts’ efforts to take the lead intensified. Watson was able to defend but it looked like a matter of time before the Belgian hit the front. That was, until Geerts crashed on the exit of turn five, clipping the edge of the rut with his front wheel which sent him flying head-first into the bank. His chances of the win were done and despite remounting the #193’s race and season were done soon after as he retired – understandable after such a significant hit to the head.

Watson’s challenge was not yet complete, though, as he now had the attentions of Jed Beaton to deal with, the Australian lapping much faster than his British rival. 

As they entered the final three laps the two were together, but just as Watson was unable to find a way past Beaton when they battled a few weeks ago in Mantova, Beaton was unable to make his way through on Watson here in Pietramurata. 

That meant Watson would take his third moto win of the season and with it his second career overall win, the first for the #919 on hard pack. To do so in his final MX2 race before moving to the factory Yamaha team in MXGP next season was quite an impressive way to sign off his 250 career. 

Beaton will be cursing his first moto having spent nearly the entirety of it staring at the #517 GASGAS jersey of Isak Gifting. Had he been able to find a way past the Swede in the morning the Australian could have been on the podium. Second place in the final race of the year, though, is a good way to sign off for the #14, as was third for Gifting who had a fairly lonely ride in the second moto and inherited the top three position vacated by Geerts. 

Maxime Renaux was able to hold on to fourth place as after his crash while battling with the #959, Vialle backed his pace off somewhat. Up to that point, it had been a type of race we had not seen from Vialle, who this season has been typically calm and reserved. With the pressure of the championship lifted, however, Vialle found speed and aggression that comes with the freedom of having nothing to lose, and the way he fought back after the second turn crash was an impressive display from the #28 who ended his season with a fifth place. 

Thomas Kjer Olsen took sixth place, a couple of seconds adrift of Vialle, but 7.5 seconds clear of Conrad Mewse in seventh. Behind the #426 was Alvin Ostlund in eighth, while Bailey Malkiewicz and Morgan Lesiardo completed the top 10. 

Kevin Horgmo was 11th, ahead of Josh Gilbert, Wilson Todd with his equal best MX2 result of the season with 13th; while Jan Pancar was 14th ahead of Petr Polak who completed the top 15, Michael Sandner in 16th, Stephen Rubini in 17th and 18th-placed Glen Meier; while Jakub Teresak and Johannes Nermann rounded out the top 20.

For the overall, this meant that the podium consisted of Ben Watson, Tom Vialle and Maxime Renaux, the two Frenchmen having been two of the standout riders in 2020 with Vialle taking his first world title and Renaux completing his first full season of GPs in third overall in the championship. 

Jed Beaton took fourth in the overall, but of course it was not enough to surpass Renaux in the championship and the Australian’s GP result for Garda Trentino reflects his position in the championship standings. 

Isak Gifting was fifth overall in this last GP of the year, eight points clear of Conrad Mewse who ended his year with a top six. Thomas Kjer Olsen was seventh, a point clear of Alvin Ostlund; while Morgan Lesiardo and Stephen Rubini completed the top 10.