Sensational from the first session out on track, Seewer was able to secure his first ever Pole Position since making the jump to the premier class three years ago. The ‘91’ posted the fastest lap time, a 1:38.887, while Tonus and Paulin were less than a second off the pace posting 1:39.064 and 1:39.527 lap times to qualify fourth and seventh, respectively.
After setting the pace in Timed Practice, Seewer carried his momentum into Race 1 where he pulled an incredible holeshot and led every lap for his third-ever MXGP race win.
Paulin and Tonus almost hit the gate after another rider jumped the gun and moved too soon. The false reaction meant both riders had to start their races from the back of the pack.
With limited line choice at the tight and compact clay circuit, the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory duo had to get creative and think ahead as they tried to push forward. After using a lot of tear-offs to keep their vision clean, Paulin managed to run an incredible pace on his way back to ninth, while Tonus found he missed some ‘race aggression’ and only managed to get back to 15th.
In the final race of the day, Seewer got off to another phenomenal start. The Swiss rider was shuffled back to third by Romain Febvre but remained at ease knowing that the 20-points claimed for third would be enough to take his seventh piece of podium silverware.
For Paulin and Tonus, the importance of a good start was magnified. All of the riders had to line-up with dirty tyres after the race was restarted due to a red flag on the opening lap of the initial ‘final race’, which didn’t play into the hands of Paulin who suffered wheel-spin off the line.
Despite starting outside of the top-15, Paulin ran the pace of the front-runners during his frantic charge forward. The ‘21’ crossed the line in seventh, while Tonus could only fight back from first turn crash to 17th.
Seewer remains third in the MXGP World Championship Standings, while Paulin is currently sixth, 9-points shy of a place inside of the top-five. The 18th and final round will take place here in Pietramurata, Italy, on Sunday 8th November. Tonus remains 17th.
