Shaun Simpson won the opening MXGP moto and with it the overall victory after the second race was axed due to the muddy conditions in the Indonesian MXGP. The British champ moved to the front after a decent start and despite a few close calls in the nasty conditions, he hold on to win by eight seconds from Glenn Coldenhoff and Clement Desalle.
Former world champ Romain Febvre, nursing a sore shoulder, took holeshot from Coldenhoff, Desalle, Jeremy Van Horebeek, Tim Gajser, Tony Cairoli, Simpson and Jeffrey Herlings – riding with a recently injured hand.
Coldenhoff took the lead as Febvre dropped back, and was hounded by Desalle, Gajser, Herlings, Simpson, and Van Horebeek. With the track quickly getting worse and places changing every lap, Simpson eventually worked his way up to the front man Coldenhoff and passed him in the worst mud on the track. He was then never headed as he took the flag, despite a near-miss towards the very end of the race.
Tony Cairoli took fourth from veteran Rui Goncalves whose experienced obviously paid dividends. It was disaster for Febvre and Herlings who were both running in the top 10 until they got stuck in the mud. Herlings ended up 17th and Febvre one place behind.
With the track getting worse and the second MX race halted before the end, the MXGP bikes were pulled off the start line as the decision was made to abandon the meeting.
That gave Simpson the overall win. Tony Cairoli still leads the series on 68 points from Clement Desalle on 60, Tim Gajser on 56 and Evgeny Bobryshev on 44. Simpson is now eighth on 36.
MXGP – Race 1 – Classification
1 24 Simpson, Shaun GBR ACU Yamaha 36:06.712
2 259 Coldenhoff, Glenn NED KNMV KTM 36:14.437
3 25 Desalle, Clement BEL FMB Kawasaki 36:19.213
4 222 Cairoli, Antonio ITA FMI KTM 36:46.139
5 999 Goncalves, Rui POR FMP Husqvarna 36:50.292
6 22 Strijbos, Kevin BEL FMB Suzuki 36:52.811
7 243 Gajser, Tim SLO AMZS Honda 37:03.684
8 7 Leok, Tanel EST EMF Husqvarna 37:13.529
9 777 Bobryshev, Evgeny RUS MFR Honda 37:20.981
10 89 Van Horebeek, Jeremy BEL FMB Yamaha 37:23.217
11 45 Nicholls, Jake GBR ACU KTM 37:28.928
12 911 Tixier, Jordi FRA FFM Kawasaki 37:53.505
13 21 Paulin, Gautier FRA MCM Husqvarna 38:28.738
14 99 Anstie, Max GBR ACU Husqvarna 38:47.920
15 4 Tonus, Arnaud SUI FMS Yamaha 36:10.918
16 27 Jasikonis, Arminas LTU LMSF Suzuki 37:09.726
17 84 Herlings, Jeffrey NED KNMV KTM 37:10.924
18 461 Febvre, Romain FRA FFM Yamaha 28:42.143
19 92 Guillod, Valentin SUI FMS Honda 28:13.063
20 261 Hendro Fahrodjie , Farhan INA IMI Kawasaki 36:50.211
21 132 Lukman, Asep INA IMI KTM 37:56.941
22 288 Lazaroni, Aldi INA IMI KTM 38:42.538
23 133 Harry, Ivan INA IMI Husqvarna 39:25.557
24 77 Lupino, Alessandro ITA FMI Honda 22:16.675
25 204 Maksum, Hilman INA IMI KTM 36:29.988
26 12 Nagl, Maximilian GER DMSB Husqvarna 14:27.092
27 17 Butron, Jose ESP RFME KTM 10:26.771 4