The sixth round of the EMX250 Championship has concluded here in Mantova, for the round of Città di Mantova, that saw Husqvarna Junior Racing Maddii’s Mattia Guadagnini make the perfect comeback to take the overall win on home soil.
In the opening race of the day, it was Thibault Benistant of Hutten Metaal Yamaha Racing, Tom Guyon from Team VRT Nordpesca Holland and Guadagnini who got a good start and were running out in front.
Guadagnini wasted no time to past Guyon and get himself into second, before passing Benistant for the lead on the opening lap. He then went on to set the fastest lap time of the race putting himself 1.6 seconds ahead of the championship leader.
Further down the field, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Kay De Wolf was having a tough start to the race and was down outside the top 20 in the opening few laps.
Yamaha SM Action M.C Migliori J1 Racing’s Hakon Fredriksen was looking to move through the field as he went after Guyon for third, while the pair were 10 seconds down on Benistant and Guadagnini.
Meanwhile De Wolf was making progress to get into 15th place on lap 3 of the race, as Guadagnini stepped it up a gear as he extended the lead over Benistant to 3.130 seconds.
Fredriksen then got Guyon for third, as Benistant made a mistake, losing a tone of time, with the gap between him and the lead going from 3 to 10 seconds in a single lap.
On lap 6 of the race Guadagnini continued to lead Benistant, Fredriksen, Guyon and Oriol Oliver who rounded out the top 5. While PAR Homes RFX Husqvarna rider Joel Rizzi, didn’t have the best opening race, as he retired from the race following a crash a few laps earlier.
De Wolf continued to make up positions as he challenged Bastian Boegh Damm of W-Z Racing to move into 12th. Things then didn’t get better for the Dane, who lost a further 4 positions and was down in 17th.
With 3 laps to go, Thomas Sileika of Diga WMX Racing dropped out of 10th, which allowed De Wolf to inherit his position. The Latvian eventually crossed the line in 15th.
In the end, Guadagnini clinched the race one victory, with Benistant second and Fredriksen third.
In race two, it was Guyon who led the way after getting another great start. Though he didn’t hold onto it for long, as Guadagnini moved past Jorgen-Matthias Talviku and Meico Vettik to move into second and started to charge for the race leader.
Meanwhile Benistant was having a much tougher start to the second race and was down in 18th on the opening laps, which meant he’d have to work hard in order to pick up as many points as possible and go after the podium.
As Fredriksen got Guyon for second, Guyon crashed out of third. Meanwhile Benistant crashed out too and picked himself up in 19th, making the race even harder for himself. Though he wasted no time, and was already up in 15th a couple of laps later, and he continued to climb positions throughout the race.
Boegh Damm then lost 6th to Pierre Goupillon of BUD Racing Kawasaki, while De Wolf passed Gianluca Facchetti of Hutten Mataal Yamaha Racing for P9.
As Benistant got up to 12th in the race, Vettik lost 4th to BUD Racing Kawasaki’s Lorenzo Locurcio who was having a great ride in the top 5.
De Wolf then had a big crash, though managed to pick himself up pretty quickly to re-join the race in 11th position.
With 2 minutes plus 2 laps on the clock, Benistant then moved himself up into 8th as he pushed for a spot on the podium, though he could only get back up to 7th which was not enough to put him on the box today.
As Guadagnini continued to lead Fredriksen by 9 seconds, Locurcio then went after Talviku and passed him for 3rd place with just 2 laps to go, which confirmed his spot on the podium.
In the end, Mattia Guadagnini confirmed his epic comeback with a race win, as Fredriksen finished second and Locurcio crossing the line in third.
With two race wins, Mattia Guadagnini occupied the top step of the podium during his home round, while Hakon Fredriksen made a back-to-back podium appearance for second overall and Locurcio finishing third.
In terms of the championship, Thibault Benistant continues to lead Mattia Guadagnini with Kay De Wolf third.
Mattia Guadagnini: “I’m so happy to be back on top and to win in Italy. Last weekend I made a lot of mistakes and I knew that today I really wanted to win so bad. I took two good starts and two race wins and I’m so happy to win here, I want to thank everybody that helps me”.
Hakon Fredriksen: “I feel really good about it. The riding today was strong, I had two okay starts and just worked my way through the races to take another podium so I’m happy for how it turned out”
Lorenzo Locurcio: “I rode really good and I’ve been working really hard, I have the speed for sure, I just don’t have the starts, so I’ve been coming through the pack a lot, today I got two really bad starts and I’ve been coming through from outside the top twenty so for me to end up on the podium was a bit of a surprise. I know this class is strong and the riders are all getting starts so I just never give up and rode my hardest and it finally paid off”.
Thibault Benistant: “Of course I’m a little bit disappointed about the second race because I lost the podium by one point but it’s not really bad because I fought really hard, I made two mistakes and fought to come back to sixth. The first race was not so bad, I got the holeshot but Mattia’s was better on the first two laps, I tried to take the win but I felt a little bit of pain in my stomach, so I wanted to finished second and I stayed second”.
“I know I have the speed and the feeling so I just need to take two good starts and after I think we will be alright for the next round” he added.
EMX250 – Race 1 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, Husqvarna), 29:44.017; 2. Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), +0:09.759; 3. Hakon Fredriksen (NOR, Yamaha), +0:21.120; 4. Tom Guyon (FRA, KTM), +0:27.539; 5. Lorenzo Locurcio (VEN, Kawasaki), +0:28.245; 6. Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), +0:34.270; 7. Jorgen-Matthias Talviku (EST, Husqvarna), +0:43.761; 8. Tim Edberg (SWE, Yamaha), +0:47.210; 9. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:52.801; 10. Maximilian Spies (GER, Husqvarna), +1:01.368.
EMX250 – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, Husqvarna), 30:06.450; 2. Hakon Fredriksen (NOR, Yamaha), +0:08.667; 3. Lorenzo Locurcio (VEN, Kawasaki), +0:16.490; 4. Jorgen-Matthias Talviku (EST, Husqvarna), +0:19.498; 5. Meico Vettik (EST, KTM), +0:33.842; 6. Pierre Goupillon (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:37.091; 7. Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), +0:37.700; 8. Tim Edberg (SWE, Yamaha), +0:41.211; 9. Tom Guyon (FRA, KTM), +0:54.453; 10. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:59.614.
EMX250 – Overall Top 10 Classification: 1. Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, HUS), 50 points; 2. Hakon Fredriksen (NOR, YAM), 42 p.; 3. Lorenzo Locurcio (VEN, KAW), 36 p.; 4. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 36 p.; 5. Jorgen-Matthias Talviku (EST, HUS), 32 p.; 6. Tom Guyon (FRA, KTM), 30 p.; 7. Tim Edberg (SWE, YAM), 26 p.; 8. Meico Vettik (EST, KTM), 23 p.; 9. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 23 p.; 10. Pierre Goupillon (FRA, KAW), 20 p.
EMX250 – Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 251 points; 2. Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, HUS), 208 p.; 3. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 181 p.; 4. Hakon Fredriksen (NOR, YAM), 152 p.; 5. Tim Edberg (SWE, YAM), 152 p.; 6. Jorgen-Matthias Talviku (EST, HUS), 144 p.; 7. Meico Vettik (EST, KTM), 137 p.; 8. Isak Gifting (SWE, KTM), 128 p.; 9. Lorenzo Locurcio (VEN, KAW), 114 p.; 10. Tom Guyon (FRA, KTM), 106 p.
EMX250 – Manufacturers Classification: 1. Yamaha, 273 points; 2. Husqvarna, 258 p.; 3. KTM, 238 p.; 4. Kawasaki, 115 p.
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Main Photo: EMX250 Podium
Bottom Photos: 1. Mattia Guadagnini; 2. Lorenzo Locurcio