The Women's Motocross World Championship consists of five rounds. Each round is staged over two days. On the first day, the riders have a Free Practice session and a Timed Practice session followed by the first of two Championship races. The result of the Timed Practice session determines the order in which the girls go to the gate for their first race which takes place on Saturday afternoon. The final race of the weekend takes place on Sunday morning.
Agueda - the circuit that hosted the second round of the FIM WMX World Championship last - is a high-speed clay-based circuit with big jumps. In the Timed Practice, three YZ250F riders made up the top-four. Papenmeier posted the second fastest time ahead of van de Ven and the early championship leader, Amandine Verstappen.
When the gates fell for Race 1, all three ladies rocketed out of the gate on their YZ250F machines. Papenmeier took the holeshot with Courtney Duncan, Verstappen and van de Ven hot on her heels. Verstappen braked late, but caught an edge and high-sided into the face of the uphill that makes up the exit of turn-one, while Ducan snuck up the inside of Papenmeier four turns later.
The small statured German, Papenmeier, was able to keep Duncan in sight for the entire 20 minute plus 2-Lap duration of the race but was unable to get close enough to challenge for the first race victory. Van de Ven eased into the race and eventually found her lines in the latter stages.
The 21-year-old Dutch rider set her fastest lap on lap-7, but with the race only consisting of 12 laps, she did not have enough time to catch Papenmeier and had to settle for third place. Fellow Dutch YZ250F rider Lynn Valk was the third Yamaha rider home, in fourth position, while the red plate holder Verstappen was impressively able to finish inside the top-ten after another fall in the middle of the race. Race 2 took place on Sunday morning under the same pleasant blue Portuguese skies. The track was in perfect condition, as was Yamaha's dynamic WMX duo van de Ven and Papenmeier.
When the gates fell, van de Ven got off to one of her trademark starts and pulled the holeshot ahead of Papenmeier and Duncan. Duncan slithered up the inside of Papenmeier within the first-three turn and sat in the wake of van de Ven until lap-4 when she made a pass for the lead and never looked back.
Van de Ven rode a solid race for second position and second overall, while Papenmeier finished third for third overall. Van de Ven is second in the WMX Championship Classification, 4-points short of the lead and 3-points clear of Papenmeier in third. A further 15-points back, Verstappen dropped to fourth in the championship. She has a 3-point buffer over Valk, who is the fourth Yamaha rider inside the top-five.
The next round of the WMX World Championship will take place in 9-weeks time at the MXGP of Czech Republic on the weekend of July 28thin Loket.