It was a case of ‘Andale!’ and ‘Arriba!’ for 2015 MXGP World Champion Romain Febvre in Leon for the Grand Prix of Mexico on Sunday as the 23 year old Frenchman went 1-1 for the fourth time in 2015 for his seventh victory of a triumphant campaign and his twelfth podium appearance on the bounce. The 23 year old vanquished all before him on the Yamaha Factory Racing YZ450F in front of a 32,000 crowd and in some difficult weather conditions with heavy rain creating a muddy and sloppy racing terrain. Monster Energy were able to double up in Mexico thanks to a superb career milestone for Kawasaki’s Thomas Covington who not only uncorked a podium champagne bottle for the first time but also claimed a chequered flag with a second moto win and sampled the view from the top step of the box as the first American winner in the class since 2008.
MXGP landed in Leon for the second year in succession and tackling once more a hard-pack, flat and ‘busy’ course of jumps, leaps and obstacles. Rain in the build-up to round seventeen of eighteen helped create softer and ‘tackier’ terrain but hot sunshine through practice and qualification on Saturday quickly helped dry the facility in the city’s largest park and with numerous cacti as part of the bristling landscape.
Come Sunday and the heavens had parted again. The circuit was almost flooded through showers on Saturday night and caused the racing surface to alter once more. Lap-times were slower and the track more technical. An additional factor in performance arrived through the high elevation that meant some set-up headaches for the teams and both bikes and racers struggled for air and maximum output.
Febvre was up to the challenge and kept a cool head. After Latvian GP winner Glen Coldenhoff had crashed out of the lead Romain began to establish a dominant winning margin over Shaun Simpson in the first moto. At the finish line the gap was forty-five seconds. In the second outing he made short thrift of Gautier Paulin and again escaped. “I am so happy to win both motos here,” the Frenchman said. “I felt good all weekend on this track even if this morning it was really muddy. We are already working and testing for next year because the championship is already won. The second moto was like how a track should be – many lines – and I enjoyed it.”
Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Thomas Covington soaked-up a great start in Saturday’s qualification heat and rode a steady pace for third position and a sizeable dose of confidence for Sunday. The nineteen year old was clearly on-form and two decent starts in the motos helped lay the base for his biggest achievement yet in Grand Prix since coming to Qatar in 2014 as a wild-card. ‘64’ rode to fourth spot in a fairly static first sprint but dealt with South African Calvin Vlaanderen at the beginning of the second moto to check-out. The track had begun to dry again for the decisive outing and Covington’s proactive approach was enough for a landmark ‘chequered flag’. He even showed world championship leader Tim Gajser a cleaner set of heels in the closing stages of the race. “I am beyond stoked,” Thomas said, teeing expectation up nicely for his home event next week. “I did not know I had the overall win until I was walking up to the podium and I asked where I should stand. It is an amazing feeling and something I have not had in a long time.”
Elsewhere Covington’s teammate Petar Petrov was not too badly injured after a smash on the first corner of the opening MX2 moto, although the strong Bulgarian had to sit out the second race. Also on the deck was Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki’s Max Anstie who rode superbly to a safe second place behind Pauls Jonass (the Latvian crashing spectacularly in moto two) but a slip later in the day meant he was on the ground from the first lap and struggled to eleventh with a damaged front brake.
Back in MXGP and Yamaha’s Jeremy Van Horebeek was part of a thrilling six-rider battle for second place in the final dash of the day that was the action highlight of the weekend. The Belgian finally came over the line in fourth for the same ranking overall. Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Tyla Rattray was ninth in his second-to-last appearance as a Pro racer.
The curtain sweeps across on MXGP in 2015 with the Monster Energy U.S. Grand Prix (the third visit by the FIM series to North America this century) taking place at Glen Helen for the first time in four years next weekend. The GP stars will be mixing it up with some popular names from the AMA and American scene around the long, hilly and famous layout in San Bernardino.