Suzuki’s Jeremy Seewer edged two points closer to the world championship lead with an overall win in the MX2 class in the scorching Italian GP at Ottobiano. The Swiss ace romped to an easy win in the opener, as red plate holder Pauls Jonass struggled with a bad start and only finished sixth. But in the second moto, Jonass made amends by taking the holeshot and clearing off to an unchallenged win, enough to give him second overall, just two points behind Seewer on the day who took second in the final moto after fighting past third overall, Thomas Covington.
Seewer, who took his third MX2 overall victory this year, said: “In the second race I had the pace in the beginning but had a tough battle with Thomas. I lost so much energy there and I crashed twice so I lost my rhythm there. I was scared I wouldn’t finish as I felt empty. I’m happy to win overall.”
Race one saw Brian Bogers lead from holeshot man Jorge Prado but Seewer was soon through to the lead after a couple of laps. Benoit Paturel came from a top ten start to take a great second place from KTM privateer Julien Lieber.
Covington and Jonass has awful starts and were locked together as they carved through the pack and pulled through to the front men. The American was passed by red plate holder Jonass but then took him back and was tailed by Latvian until the last lap when Bogers took Jonass on the last corner. Covington took fourth from Bogers and shellshocked Jonass.
Second time out, Jonass took a start to finish win, heading Seewer over the line by 11 seconds. Jonass now leads Seewer by 38 points. Seewer clashed with Covington and slipped off as the American ran off the track. They regrouped but from then Seewer had the upper hand as Covington’s challenge faded and he settled for third.
Jonas said: “First moto was the first race when I did’t get a good start this year and I burned too much energy in the first laps. I was not so happy but I made some bike changes and in moto two I got a holeshot and I could just ride my own race. We have a long way to go but we’ll keep working hard.”
Covington said: “I tried to go for it but hit a wall half way through and just had to survive. Americans have never been so good in the sand so hopefully I’m trying to turn that around.”
After fourth in his qualifying heat, it was disaster for Ben Watson who crashed on the start straight of the first race. He remounted and got into the points but fell again. In the second moto he took eighth, while fwllow Brit Conrad Mewse was 20th despite getting a good start. Mewse was 14th in the opener.
