MXGP, MX2 and WMX round up from France

MXGP 2023

Round Seven – MXGP of France – Villars sous Ecot

Hot on the heels of a crazy French MotoGP round was the equally crazy MXGP of France staged over the weekend at a redesigned Villars sous Ecot.

Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team’s Jeremy Seewer was on the top step of the podium for the first time this season.

Kawasaki Racing Team’s Romain Febvre managed an emotional second overall to bring joy to his countrymen and scored a race win along the way.

Red plate holder Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing’s Jorge Prado was third overall for the round.

KRT’s Mitch Evans also continues to make advances as he recovers from his pre-season injuries and subsequent long absence from racing.

The Australian had little chance of a good start from the outside-gate handed to him in Qualifying and completed the opening lap in each moto only just inside the top-twenty but he continued to push for the entire thirty-five minutes of each race to take the chequered flag twelfth and fifteenth for thirteenth overall.

Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 Team’s Thibault Benistant made the French public go wild with a dominant first GP win at home ahead of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing duo Andrea Adamo and Liam Everts.

2023 MXGP of France Highlights

MXGP Race One

Jeremy Seewer clinched his fifth FOX Holeshot of the season but Jorge Prado quickly moved into the lead while home hero Romain Febvre moved up to third place on the opening lap.

Seewer made a charge back on Prado on the fifth lap to take lead and from there never looked back, racing to his first victory of the season.

Further back the battle for second place raged between Prado, Febvre and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings.

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Herlings passed Febvre for third place on lap 12 and then took Prado on lap 14 to finish second while Febvre went on to pass Prado to finish 3rd. Prado settled for 4th in the end.

Team HRC’s Rubén Fernández was fifth throughout the whole race and was followed home by Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing’s Mattia Guadagnini.

Mitch Evans took the chequered flag in 12th place, 77-seconds behind the victor.

MXGP Race One Results

MXGP Race Two

Seewer again scored the holeshot and it looked like he was going for the perfect 1-1 but Romain Febvre was determined to win his first race of the season to delight the partisan home crowd.

On lap 12, Febvre got up the inside of Seewer to take the lead and send the crowd wild before they erupted when Febvre celebrated victory with a heel-clicker across the line.

The second place result was good enough to give Seewer the overall GP round victory.

Prado backed up his fourth place in race one with third in the second bout to claim third place for the round, two-points behind Febvre.

Prado knew that getting these points were vital after Herlings went out of the race on the third lap after a problem with his goggles hindered his vision.  Following a stop to the goggle lane to change them, Herlings had already a mountain to climb but then broke his foot peg broke on a landing. This unlikely series of events saw him retire from the race which allowed Prado to extend his championship lead to 24-points.

Fernandez experienced another quiet but succesfull race as he managed to keep his 4th place from start to finish for a consistent 5-4 to bag good points.  Similarly Vlaanderen went 8-5 for fifth overall.

Coldenhoff also showed good speed in this second race as he managed to pass the always consistent Guillod on lap nine to finish sixth in the end.

Mitch Evans finished 15th and took the chequered flag 102-seconds behind the winner.

Jeremy Seewer – P1

“This weekend I managed to stay out of trouble, and it looks like we have solved the problem with the starts because I have been upfront on the start for the last few races. It was amazing today. The fans were incredible, and I have never seen the start straight that full. This track is close to Switzerland, so there were many Swiss fans and French fans for Romain (Febvre). The atmosphere was amazing, and it felt like a kind of revenge after the Swiss GP didn’t go to plan. To race in front of so many Swiss fans and to give them a win feels so good. They deserve it, and looking ahead, I want to keep building my form and going ahead with a smile.”

Romain Febvre – P2

“As everyone knows I crashed in Spain two weeks ago and it was quite hard with the concussion. I took a week off and even this week I felt very second-hand when I rode; it was difficult to analyse my speed but I was determined to do everything to race here. Yesterday the track was even tougher than today, particularly for me because I was struggling a little with concentration, but I stayed positive and I felt much more comfortable today. The atmosphere in the second moto when I took the lead was tremendous. Physically I am good and I pushed to the end. On the last lap I saw I had a gap and I could celebrate for the fans; I was born just one hour and thirty minutes from here so it was especially nice to make something for everyone who turned up to support me. I’m not 100% and I still need to take some time to recover but I feel I deserved that moto win after what happened in Spain. Two weeks ago we thought the season was over but now I almost won the GP and the championship is long. This success today is fantastic not only for me but also for the team and Kawasaki; let’s keep working to make it happen!”

Jorge Prado – P3

 “It was quite a good weekend! I had a great qualification race. I was leading in the first race and lost my rhythm a little – the backmarkers did not help. Third was the best that I could do in the second moto. I was pushing as hard as I could, but I did not feel so confident as the track got drier. It is nice to extend my championship lead. There is a long way to go and I just want to stay consistent.”

Ruben Fernandez – P4

“Sometimes you have really crazy races, with constant battling and always having riders around you, but these two races were the opposite. Race one was just putting in consistent laptimes with no one in front or behind, and race two I was in the middle of some guys but never really under too much pressure, so not a lot happened. But I am happy because I rode smart on this difficult race track, I didn’t make any big mistakes and I finished fourth overall, which is a good result. I’ve now gone four-four-three-four so I’m showing good speed and good consistency and I’m happy with my overall riding.”

Glenn Coldenhoff – P7

“Today was difficult, I would say, because yesterday was terrible. I couldn’t find the flow and this track was very difficult, but no excuses. I need to be better. I made some changes for today, and obviously, the track was very different as well. My speed today was not too bad, but still, 9-6 is very far from where I should be. So, back to work. I think I need to work on the starts, and then we will be in a better spot. We’re going to Latvia now, in two weeks. I will put in some solid work, and I will be strong there, 100%.”

Jeffrey Herlings – P9

“The weekend started pretty well and I was in a good spot for today. I felt good in the first moto and by finishing 2nd we were close to the red plate but second moto we had a couple of issues and unfortunately I couldn’t finish the race. Not the best way to end the Grand Prix but these things can happen. We’re 24 points down now but we’ll work to get them back and I’m looking forward to racing in Holland this weekend and onto Latvia the week after.”

MXGP Race Two Results

2023 MXGP of France Round Overall

MXGP Standings – Top 20

MX2 Race One

F&H Kawasaki Racing Team’s Kevin Horgmo clinched his second FOX Holeshot of the season but it didn’t take long for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Roan Van de Moosdijk to move through to the lead with his team-mate Kay de Wolf then pushing Horgmo further back to third.

Monster Energy Yamaha’s Thibault Benistant then went on to relegate Horgmo to fourth and the Frenchman then went on to set the fastest lap to pass both Husky riders and take the lead before pulling away to win the first race of his home Grand Prix.

Things never settled behind him as both de Wolf and Van De Moosdijk got put under pressure by Andrea Adamo and Liam Everts from Red Bull KTM Factory Racing. Van De Moosdijk was passed twice in a row on lap eight to move down to fifth where he stayed until the end.

De Wolf resisted for two laps but Everts passed him on lap ten to take second place. Adamo followed his team-mate a lap later to take third and then battled with de Wolf for six laps to claim that third place.

MX2 Race One Results

MX2 Race Two

Lucas Coenen scored the holeshot and the Belgian never looked back on his way to a commanding victory. Unfortunately his seventh place in the opening race meant that he just missed the overall GP podium.

Home hero Benistant had to work his way past de Wolf to secure second place and take the overall GP win.

De Wolf could not contain Adamo and Everts speed and had to settle for fifth.

Adamo and Everts battled between themselves for the final step on the podium and this time around it was the Italian that scored the podium while Everts settled for fourth.

The most incredible performance of race two goes to Horgmo as the Norwegian was 28th at the end of lap one but managed to work his way forward to ninth place by the flag.

Thibault Benistant – P1

“This is the first time I have won a GP in France. I had a lot of friends here this weekend, all the way from the South of France, so it is really nice to see so many of my friends here to support me. The French fans were amazing this weekend. I wanted to win this GP so bad, and today, I did it! I wanted to win both races, but it’s okay. I was feeling good all weekend, and I finally feel like I am back to riding the way I know I can. Now the goal is to do this every weekend, and then it should be good.”

Andrea Adamo – P2

“I managed two good motos today but not with good starts! I came back through well and had a nice battle with Liam. I made a lot of passes and took some risks in the second moto. I was too far back and had to fix the situation. Lap after lap I was coming back to Liam and that gave me the energy to keep going and reach P3 again. 2nd position overall represents a good weekend. Unfortunately, Jago [Geerts] was not riding with us but that is also part of the sport and means we are just one point from the lead. Let’s see what we can do in Latvia.”

Liam Everts – P3

“I had a lot of fun with the track on Saturday. Today it was a bit too fast and I’m pleased to walk away today in one piece and with a good result as well. I never gave up and kept pushing 100%. My second podium; I’m super-happy.”

Kevin Horgmo – P8

“Race one was nice with the holeshot and I felt good, but I haven’t been up there racing at the front for some time so I was missing the intensity and speed to race with them in the early laps. Once I found my rhythm I was riding better and better; it’s just a pity I couldn’t earn a better result after taking the holeshot. I had to stop at the pit-lane on the first lap of the second moto for repairs but I pushed all moto to come back from dead-last to ninth.”

MX2 Race Two Results

2023 MXGP of France MX2 Round Overall

MX2 Standings – Top 20

WMX Round Four

New Zealand’s Courtney Duncan has cemented herself in FIM World WMX Women’s Motocross Championship history, with double moto victories in France giving her the record for the most ever Grand Prix wins with 22.

Fittingly, her closest competitor over the weekend at the Villars sous Écot track was her long-time rival and 21 career GP winner Italy’s Kiara Fontanesi, whom Duncan has now moved ahead of by one.

Riding for Big Van World MTX Kawasaki, Duncan beat French round runner-up and six-time world champion Fontanesi in both races to take overall victory in France and extend her overall championship lead by 20 points.

A three-time world champion, Duncan is in fine form this season with five moto wins from eight starts to her name. For the past two rounds, where she has won every race, it seems everything she touches turns to gold and even a crash in the first moto just fuelled her fire.

Twenty-seven-year-old Duncan was quickly through to second with a dramatic downhill double-pass halfway around the opening lap on the highly technical, heavy French track. As she closed in on the leader Fontanesi, she cross-rutted on a heavy landing and was thrown into the trackside earth-bank. Dunedin’s Duncan quickly reboarded her Kawasaki KX250 and re-joined the race in fifth place, before swiftly moving back into third.

The race leader was already 11 secs clear and the second placed rider Spain’s Daniela Guillen was 4 secs up the track – meaning Duncan had her work cut out for her. By lap four she had regained second position and on the eighth of eleven laps, having recorded a succession of fastest laps, she swept decisively around Fontanesi to move in front and eventually win by 27-seconds.

Her second moto victory for the weekend saw her take the flag seven-seconds ahead of Fontanesi.

As the WMX series takes a break until mid-August, Duncan heads home to New Zealand with an extremely solid 20-point-lead in the championship standings and the knowledge she more than has what it takes to bring back her fourth winner’s trophy at the season’s end in September.

Courtney Duncan – P1

“These French GP wins saw me take over the all-time GP wins in WMX and I’m definitely stoked on that. It was something I wanted to achieve coming into this weekend, so to tick that off is an incredibly good feeling. In the second race, I took the holeshot which usually never happens. So, I think I was honestly more stoked on the holeshot than the eventual race win. I led from start to finish so can’t complain about that. I think there’s multiple things that are working for me in 2023. It started off with our pre-season, where I had a really strong build-up in New Zealand. We put a lot of hard work in there and it set me off on the right foot. My bike is also super good, especially the suspension, which I did a lot of testing with in NZ before I left. I’m also another year wiser and it’s good to have a bit more speed. All in all, it’s been a really good start to the season. The next race is in the sand, so I will do about a five or six-week boot camp there to get ready for that.”

Lotte van Drunen – P4

“I felt good in practice yesterday but I made a bad start and had to come from way back to fifth. Today I was good out of the gate but I went way too wide at the first turn; there were still some ruts there so it was difficult to turn for me but I fought my way back to fourth. I was in the wheel of second and third but there were some backmarkers in the way so I couldn’t pass them; but this is a learning year for me so it’s fine. The track was really difficult, particularly yesterday, but I enjoyed it. There’s a couple of months break in the world series now but I can’t wait for my home GP at Arnhem in August. I have more races before then to keep me busy; in the European Championship I am undefeated so far and I hope to keep it like that and be champion.”

Things didn’t go quite as rosy for Yamaha Australia’s Charli Cannon. The Queenslander was sixth quickest in practice but it was a tale of promise unfulfilled in France for the teenager. Cannon was sixth quickest in practice and running as high as fourth in the opening moto before going down heavily.

She ended up crossing the line 19th but was stripped of the result as she reversed direction briefly while recovering from her crash. Brake problems in the second moto stunted her progress, the front brake locking on meant that she had to roll the jumps and could only bag two-points from a 19th place finish which has seen her slip to eighth in the championship.

2023 MXGP of France WMX Round Overall

WMX Standings