French Fancies for Coenen and Benistant as They Win The Qualifying Races

por admin · 22 marzo 2025

The glorious Circuit de Puy Poursay near the village of Saint Jean d’Angely saw a sizeable crowd braving mixed weather conditions for the first day of the MXGP of Europe, the third round of the 2025 FIM Motocross World Championships!

The MXGP Qualifying Race saw a sensational first career win on a 450 for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rookie Lucas Coenen, seeing off a late charge from Championship leader Tim Gajser, who extended his points lead for Honda HRC as his teammate Ruben Fernandez took third position.

The French fans made plenty of noise during the MX2 Qualifying Race as Thibault Benistant took his Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 machine to a loudly-hailed second Qualifying victory in a row! That was after an eventful race that saw issues for reigning World Champion Kay de Wolf, as his Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing teammate Liam Everts took over the red plate in MX2, with third behind Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Simon Laengenfelder.

The weather could still have a hand to play in this Grand Prix weekend, however, and the Paddock is holding its collective breath to see what Mother Nature serves up on Sunday!

Tim Gajser has taken the last three GP victories here at St Jean, and looked in fine form with the fastest time in both Free and Time Practice sessions, although local favourite Romain Febvre was right behind him in second place in the final timesheets.

Bolting from the middle of the start straight, however, was Lucas Coenen, who pulled the sort of Holeshot usually reserved for his brother Sacha, and started to pull away from TEM JP253 KTM Racing privateer Jan Pancar, who had got the start of his life in front of every other factory bike on the grid!

Pancar had to duel with home hero Maxime Renaux, who ultimately had to pass the Slovenian twice in a race where the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP rider looked fast, but was pushed back by small mistakes. Honda HRC duo Gajser and Fernandez took second and third when Renaux stalled the bike right in front of the packed fans’ area, but was urged on to recover to a great fourth by the finish.

Pancar started to slide down the order gradually, as Romain Febvre took fifth for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, also passing Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP star Calvin Vlaanderen, who would come home in sixth position. Another blue bike, the JK Racing Yamaha of Isak Gifting, took seventh with a strong ride, and Pauls Jonass made a last lap pass on Pancar to claim eighth for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP. Fast-starting Norwegian Kevin Horgmo grabbed the final point for Team Honda Motoblouz SR Motul.

Meanwhile Lucas Coenen, on a circuit where he has never lost a race in either the MX2 or the EMX250 class, looked to be cruising to victory, until Gajser closed onto his back wheel halfway around the final lap! The teenager did not lose his cool, however, and poured on the pace to win by a final margin of just over two and a half seconds! After taking ten MX2 Qualifying Race wins in his career, his first in the premier class will no doubt taste as sweet as all of the others put together!

With Renaux overtaking Febvre for second in the series, Gajser’s Championship advantage grew to 23 points, and with such a great record at this circuit under his belt, he will still feel confident heading into the two races tomorrow! We could be in for a stunning battle between the two titans of St Jean at the MXGP of Europe!

Luicas Coenen: ” I got a really good start—we figured it out with the team, and it felt great. Like I’ve said before, Rome wasn’t built in a day. I struggled a lot at the beginning of the season, but now I’m starting to find my rhythm again, and I loved every bit of it. I was a bit stressed—Tim is a five-time world champion, and he was pushing hard. It reminded me of when we were riding at his home track last year. But overall, I’m really happy with how it went. Tomorrow is a new day, we’ll give it our best!”

MXGP – Qualifying Race – Classification: 1. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 24:13.494; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:02.562; 3. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:22.295; 4. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:28.910; 5. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:34.977; 6. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:37.103; 7. Isak Gifting (SWE, Yamaha), +0:39.419; 8. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), +0:40.275; 9. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), +0:41.089; 10. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Honda), +0:54.893

MXGP – World Championship Classification: 1. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 117 points; 2. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 94 p.; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 94 p.; 4. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 79 p.; 5. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 67 p.; 6. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 61 p.; 7. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, FAN), 56 p.; 8. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KAW), 56 p.; 9. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 56 p.; 10. Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, DUC), 52 p.

After his best weekend yet at the previous round, Honda HRC rider Ferruccio Zanchi took the fastest time in the morning’s Free Practice session, but it was home hero Thibault Benistant who raised the voices of the crowd by edging ahead of the Italian to top the tables in Time Practice for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2!

The Holeshot of the race was disputed between De Wolf and starting master Sacha Coenen, and the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing man grabbed the early lead and looked to take off at the front. Laengenfelder moved forward past Benistant’s teammate Karlis Reisulis, but French fans were dismayed to see Kawasaki Racing Team MX2 rookie Mathis Valin tip over on just the fourth corner while in fifth position!

Coenen and De Wolf looked secure out front, as Benistant advanced to third past Laengenfelder on lap six. It all changed in dramatic fashion, however, when De Wolf was suddenly unable to make it up one of the bigger hills on the track! He got going again briefly, but stabbing at the gear lever yielded no results and he had to pull off the circuit on lap eight for his first zero score in any race for well over a year!

Still the race had more surprises in store, as the rain intensified to make the hard-pack surface increasingly slippery. Sacha Coenen, seemingly comfortable in the lead, suffered a violent crash through some advertising boards and on to the start straight, although he showed his toughness by remounting in third place.

Behind the leaders, Zanchi advanced from outside the top twenty to claim the final point in tenth, as Reisulis dropped back early on, then fought forward to take eighth from Venrooy KTM’s Cas Valk on the final lap. Valerio Lata took seventh position for Honda HRC, his first Qualifying Race points in MX2.

Clearly in pain, Coenen slipped back to sixth as his teammate Andrea Adamo passed him on the final lap. Monster Energy Triumph Racing star Camden McLellan enjoyed another good Saturday with fourth, and Liam Everts took a typically consistent third behind Laengenfelder, as the Belgian takes possession of the red plate for tomorrow against all of the pre-season odds.

The crowd thoroughly enjoyed seeing Benistant romp to victory, his second in two weekends for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2. He still sits sixth in the series but is now just two points behind Coenen in fifth. De Wolf will once again line up on Sunday with black plates but is only two points behind his teammate and hungry for redemption!

Once more the MX2 class is almost impossible to call for tomorrow’s MXGP of Europe, and the red plate pinball could still see it swap places yet again! Don’t miss the action from both classes at round three of the FIM Motocross World Championships!

Thibault Benistant: ” I actually came here to win that one—it was a good feeling. I wasn’t leading at first, I think I had a small issue with the bike, and Sacha (Coenen) made a little mistake. The track was a bit slippery, but in the end, I took the win—and that’s what we’ll remember from that qualifying. I’m happy with the result, and happy to make the fans smile too.”

MX2 – Qualifying Race – Classification: 1. Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), 23:50.247; 2. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:07.927; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:13.823; 4. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:14.210; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:19.146; 6. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:20.004; 7. Valerio Lata (ITA, Honda), +0:28.131; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:39.531; 9. Cas Valk (NED, KTM), +0:40.976; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +0:43.446

MX2 – World Championship Classification: . Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 99 points; 2. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 97 p.; 3. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 87 p.; 4. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 77 p.; 5. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 76 p.; 6. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 73 p.; 7. Cas Valk (NED, KTM), 63 p.; 8. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 54 p.; 9. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 49 p.; 10. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 46 p

MXGP OF EUROPE QUICK FACTS:
Circuit length: 1610m
Type of ground: Hard Pack
Temperature: 9°
Weather conditions: Rainy

TIMETABLE
SUNDAY:
08:45 EMX125 Race 2, 09:25 MX2 Warm-up, 09:45 MXGP Warm-up, 10:30 EMX250 Race 2, 12:15 MX2 Race 1, 13:15 MXGP Race 1, 15:10 MX2 Race 2, 16:10 MXGP Race 2.

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Or visit the official MXGP website mxgp.com