Monster Energy Triumph Racing’s Mikkel Haarup has claimed eighth overall at the MXGP of Italy, despite injuring his right knee during qualifying at the 10th round of the campaign. In race one, the determined Dane battled hard for eighth, while in race two, a stronger start resulted in a seventh-place finish. With the season now reaching the halfway stage, Mikkel remains sixth in the FIM MX2 Motocross World Championship.

Each day at the MXGP of Italy couldn’t have been more different. Throughout Saturday, heavy rain fell and created a challenging race track then on Sunday, sunny skies quickly dried out the circuit, resulting in near-perfect conditions for the GP races.

To gain further treatment on his knee, Mikkel skipped the warm-up session to give himself more recovery time before the gate dropped for race one. Starting from an outside gate because of his low qualifying position, the 22-year-old began the moto in the mid-pack and quickly set about working his way forward. By lap four, he’d broke into the top 10 and progressed to eighth a few laps later. From there, Haarup chased home red plate holder Kay de Wolf but was unable to find a way around the series leader.

Using the power of his TF 250-X, a much-improved start to race two saw Mikkel just outside the top five. As riders battled for position, Haarup comfortably held sixth for much of the moto before dropping to seventh on lap 10. He then maintained his strong pace to the finish, ultimately securing eighth overall for his efforts.

With 10 of 20 rounds now complete, the MX2 World Championship has reached the halfway stage, with Mikkel lying sixth in the standings. Up next for Haarup and Monster Energy Triumph Racing is a trip to Indonesia for a double header – two back-to-back events in Lombok before the series returns to Europe for the MXGP of Czech Republic on July 20-21.

Mikkel Haarup: “We’re now halfway through the season with this GP in Italy done. I got beat up really good in a crash on Saturday but I was able to turn it around for Sunday. Even though I had to start on the far outside, my starts were great, and I was able to race hard for decent points. I feel like my riding was really good and for next time I’ll be focused on staying on two wheels to try and get back on the podium.”

Vincent Bereni – Monster Energy Triumph Racing Team Manager: “Unfortunately it was another tough weekend for Mikkel. On Saturday he couldn’t get a fast lap in due to the traffic on the track and the conditions so his start position for the qualifying race was not the best. Then he landed on a bike and hurt his knee. Our team’s physio, Jo Thijsen, did a great job of working on Mikkel so that he could race and continued to do so during the morning, so Mikkel didn’t even ride warm-up. After both races, he placed eighth overall, which is an amazing result, and now it’s onto Indonesia.”