2018 MXGP BULGARIA | MX2 OVERALL RACE RESULTS

MX2 points leader Jorge Prado’s launch off the gate was impressive. 

With only three rounds left of the 2018 MXGP World Championship series, the defending champion, Pauls Jonass is running out of time to close the points gap on his teammate Jorge Prado. Prado took the overall in Bulgaria with a 2-1 finish. Jonass took second with a 1-3 score and the Honda rider of Hunter Lawrence went 5-2 for third.

MX2 OVERALL RACE RESULTS

Pos	Rider	Bike	Race 1	Race 2
1	Prado, Jorge	KTM	2	1
2	Jonass, Pauls	KTM	1	3
3	Lawrence, Hunter	HON	5	2
4	Olsen, Thomas Kjer	HUS	3	5
5	Watson, Ben	YAM	6	4
6	Weltin, Marshal	KAW	7	7
7	Covington, Thomas	HUS	4	11
8	Rodriguez, Anthony	YAM	14	6
9	Koch, Tom	KTM	13	8
10	Vaessen, Bas	HON	9	12
11	Bernardini, Samuele	YAM	10	15
12	De Waal, Micha-Boy	HON	12	14
13	Sandner, Michael	KTM	18	9
14	Roosiorg, Hardi	KTM	15	13
15	Van doninck, Brent	HUS	13	22
16	Pessoa, Gustavo	KAW	26	10
17	Sikyna, Richard	KTM	11	20
18	Furlotti, Simone	YAM	16	16
19	Casas, Oriol	HON	17	18
20	Lesiardo, Morgan	KTM	19	17
21	Dimitrov, Alex	KTM	20	19
22	Jacobi, Henry	HUS	24	21
23	Vlaanderen, Calvin	HON	21	DNS
24	Rubini, Stephen	KTM	22	DNS
25	Renaux, Maxime	YAM	23	DNS

 

MX2 POINT STANDINGS (ROUND 17 OF 20)

Pos	Rider	Bike	Total
1	Prado, Jorge	KTM	739
2	Jonass, Pauls	KTM	709
3	Olsen, T.	HUS	555
4	Watson, Ben	YAM	515
5	Covington, T.	HUS	480
6	Vlaanderen, C.	HON	462
7	Geerts, Jago	YAM	346
8	Cervellin, M.	YAM	314
9	Jacobi, Henry	HUS	278
10	Lawrence, H.	HON	267
11	Pootjes, Davy	KTM	218
12	Beaton, Jed	KAW	216
13	Mewse, Conrad	KTM	200
14	Sterry, Adam	KAW	189
15	Larranaga Olano, I.	HUS	185
16	Van doninck, B.	HUS	179
17	Rodriguez, A.	YAM	160
18	Bernardini, S.	YAM	152
19	Vaessen, Bas	HON	148
20	Brylyakov, V.	YAM	127

MX2 RACE REPORT | BULGARIA

Jorge Prado.

MX2 racing was full of action especially in race one where Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jorge Pradotook the Fox Holeshot but had fellow Red Bull KTM rider and championship competitor Pauls Jonass just behind.

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing Team’s Thomas Covington and Thomas Kjer Olsen were in 3rd and 4th with American Marshal Weltin on his new F&H Racing Team Kawasaki 5th.

Honda 114 Motorsports Hunter Lawrence was 6th but took 5th from Weltin on lap 2 only to gift it back the next lap when he fell and remounted in 7th behind Team DIGA-Procross’ Brent Van doninck. It only took Lawrence a lap to get back into his starting position of 7th.

Lap 3 would be the end of the Bulgarian campaign for Team HRC’s Calvin Vlaanderen when he fell in an attempt to avoid the downed Ben Watson and his Kemea Yamaha Official MX2 Team YZ250F. Vlaanderen then had KTM Silver Action’s Stephen Rubini collide with his bike and him. Though the South African got up under his own power he rode straight back to the Team HRC truck.

While many eyes were on Vlaanderen it was Jonass making moves as he took the lead from Prado during lap 4. Prado was unable to respond and quickly lost time to Jonass. The other teammates that were running 3rd and 4th also swapped positions when Olsen took third from Covington.

At the halfway point Lawrence passed Weltin to take 5th for the second time while Watson moved the American back another spot to seventh. At the finish it was win for Jonass over Prado and Olsen.

Race 2 was started with Prado’s 10th Fox Holeshot in a row with Jonass breathing down the #61’s neck. Olsen and Covington had a massive change of fortune when both went down in the first turn.

Jonass was in a perfect position to score his first double race win since the MXGP of Great Britain but instead lost the front end on the opening lap. Though Jonass only lost two spots to Lawrence and Watson he and his bike suffered damage.

Olsen was perhaps the most impressive in the opening laps coming from essentially last, after the first turn fall, to 5th by lap 3! Olsen’s progress was halted there however as Jonass was sure to give up no further championship points.

At the front Lawrence steadily closed on Prado who backed off the pace early but the Spaniard eventually dug deep to hold off the Australian.

Prado took the race win along with the overall while Jonass made a late pass on Watson taking 4th in the race and 2nd overall. The final spot on the podium went to Lawrence with his 5-2 score, slightly improved from his 5-3 podium earning result last week in Switzerland. Prado now leads the points by 30 after gaining 2 on Jonass this weekend.

Jorge Prado: “Riding was good and it was a tough track for me with the hard pack but I am happy to take the win.”

Pauls Jonass: “I felt pretty good all weekend, I enjoy racing this track. It is an old school style track and there is a few on the calendar but this is one that I really enjoy racing on. I managed to get third in race 2 which is not so bad but not what we want. There are still 3 rounds to go, 6 races, and we will not give up easy, we will fight until the last meter.”

Hunter Lawrence: “I am a little disappointed about the first race, I was feeling really good all weekend and I threw it away myself with mistakes. We improved from last weekend though and it is a step in the right direction.”