2020 FIM Motocross World Championship - RND #5 - GP Of Kegums (LAT)

At GP of Kegums, Fredriksen ended in the ‘Top 10’ of the EMX250 Championship after two good races. Renaux, in MX2, finished 5th overall. In MXGP, Jacobi gained points in both races and he is back again in the ‘Top 20’ of the World Championship.

After the GP of Kegums, FIM Motocross World Championship finished the first step of the restart after the stop caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. The circuit was redesigned in a few sections and jumps, and the riders had thrilling races, thanks to the perfect conditions of the surface of the track and a typical summer weather.

Team SM Action Yamaha, as in the previous two rounds, deployed Henry JAcobi #29 in the MXGP class, Maxime Renaux #959 in the MX2 and Hakon Fredriksen #427 in the EMX250.

After the great result of the second round, Fredriksen confirmed his speed in the quarter-of-litre class of the European Championship. He finished 8th in Free Practice and qualified 5th for the race. In Race 1 he had a good start and he moved up to the 4th place, but then he had a physical issue and he moved back to the 6th position, which he kept until the checkered flag. In Race 2, Fredriksen finished 3rd after an excellent race but at the sound level detection his bike was signaled as ‘too loud’, so he was penalized by five positions and he then ended in 8th place. At the end of the day he finished 6th overall while he gained three places in the General Classifications as he is now in 10th position.

In the MX2, the French Maxime Renaux kept his performance level high. He finished 4th in Qualifying and 9th in Timed Practice so secured himself a good place at the starting gate. His start in Race 1 was almost perfect as he was 3rd after the start. Unluckily, the insidious track surface tricked the French and he found himself in 10th place after a crash. As always, though, his recovery was good and after a solid race he finished 6th. In Race 2, the start of Maxime made him making just out of the Top 10 but his recovery was unceasing and he reached the 3rd place, which he kept almost for the whole race. He then was 4th at the checkered flag. At the end of the day he was 5th overall and he solidly kept his position in the General Classification, as he is 4th with 4 points of gap from the 3rd.

Finally, in the MXGP class, Henry Jacobi went back to the ‘Top 20’. After that he finished Qualifying in 17th place, the German made a good start in Race 1 and for a lot of laps he was close to the ‘Top 10’. Eventually his performance during the race went back to a certain level and after 17 laps he finished in a well deserved 14th place. In Race 2 Henry had a worse start but throughout the race he moved up to the 15th place. He gained points in both races, he finished 15th in the overall and he is now back in the ‘Top 20’ of the General classification.

The FIM Motocross World Championship will now take two weeks of stop. After the break, it will move to Turkey for the 6th round of the season at Afyonkarahisar circuit during the first weekend of September. After that, there will be the return to Italy for four consecutive rounds: two at Faenza Circuit and two at Mantua circuit.

Maxime Renaux #959: “This weekend went quite well. In Race 1 I started in the front but then, during lap 1, I crashed and I had to recover. In Race 2 I started a little bit further back but I avoided mistakes and I finished 4th. For sure this was a good round as I gained a lot of points in the General Classification, and now I can fight for 3rd place. The target is that, and I’m looking forward to get it in the next rounds. See you next time.”

Text by Max Serafino - Photo by Davide Messora