Tim Gasjer took his first overall MXGP win in more than a year after two nail-biting races with Tony Cairoli at Arco in Italy.

Both races saw the men battle hard at the front, leaving the pack behind them. In the first moto the Honda man managed to stay ahead when he put the move on Cairoli with four laps to go.

Second time out, Gajser holeshot but Cairoli eventually got by. The pair were pushing hard but Cairoli almost crashed in a turn, tweaking his knee. In the next corner the KTM man claimed he couldn’t lean the bike over properly because of the knee. He ran up hish on a bank and went down hard, narrowly missing Gajser’s Honda. He got back on and took second, as the pair had such a huge lead over third place Gautier Paulin.

Paulin was third in both motos, and his Yamaha team-mate Arnaud Tonus was fourth both times out, with fast-starting local hero Ivo Monicelli fifth overall.

Shaun Simpson was top Brit in eighth with seventh and 11th place finishes, and Tommy Searle has a bet of eighth in moto two, backing up 17th first time out. Max Anstie crashed out of race one then had to pit in race two for repairs.

In the MX2 class, Ben Watson came within a point of getting on the podium as he took fourth overall, thanks to a stunning ride through the top ten to third in the second moto. He was seventh in the first moto but has now moved up to fourth in the world championship chase.

Jorge Prado again dominated both races, with Jago Geerts in second overall and Tom Vialle on the podium in third, one point in front of Watson. red plate man Thomas Kjer Olsen and Henry Jacobi.

Adam Sterry took eighth place overall thanks to a pair of eighth places, but Conrad Mewse had bad starts in both motos and was 17th then 27th after he came round almost last on the first lap.