Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP’s Jeremy Seewer and Maxime Renaux shared the podium at the seventh round of the FIM Motocross World Championship in Maggiora, Italy. Seewer returned to form with two second place finishes for second overall, while Renaux went 3-3 for third. As a result, ‘The Rookie’, Renaux, has moved up to second in the MXGP Championship Standings while Seewer has moved up to third. Glenn Coldenhoff made the most of an “off day” to round out the top-10 and remains fifth in the championship chase.
Making another positive step in its 2022 MXGP title campaign, the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP team celebrated its first double podium since Jeremy Seewer and Arnaud Tonus finished second and third at the MXGP of Asia in July 2019.
The conditions at the MXGP of Italy were highly challenging today. Heavy rain and intermittent showers made the spectacular Maggiora MX Park circuit very technical and extremely one-lined.
In Race 1, Renaux powered his YZ450FM to a top-three start but was narrowly beaten to the holeshot line by Gebben Van Venroy Yamaha’s Calvin Vlaanderen. The Frenchman slotted in behind the South African, Vlaanderen, before making a pass for the lead on lap 7.
Once at the front of the fray, Renaux focused on putting in some good laps while withstanding pressure from the Championship Leader Tim Gajser, who also passed the number ‘10’ of Vlaanderen on lap 7. But, at the halfway mark, rain began to fall, making the rough and rugged Italian clay extremely slippery. Renaux made an error and was edged back to second by Gajser with 8-minutes left on the clock.
Seewer was on a charge after starting on the cusp of the top five. The ‘91’ showed phenomenal speed and a brilliant return to form as he stormed past some of the world’s most formidable MXGP challengers to take second position from Renaux with three laps remaining.
At the flag, Seewer was second and Renaux was third despite crashing on the final lap. Vlaanderen held on for a season-best fourth place.
Coldenhoff started outside of the top-10 and was challenged by the one-lined nature of the circuit. Despite struggling to find his flow, he still fought back to eighth.
In much drier conditions, but with even less line selection, the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP stars posted more positive points. Seewer and Renaux replicated the result of race one after starting inside the top five and passing Pauls Jonass and Ben Watson to finish inside the top three. At the same time, Coldenhoff struggled to bounce back from a crash and finished the final race in 12th.
With all three riders inside the top five in the MXGP Championship Standings, the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team is excited to head to Riola, Sardinia, for the eighth round of the MXGP series, which will take place on the weekend of May 15th.
Jeremy Seewer
2nd MXGP of Italy, 44-points
3rd MXGP Championship Standings, 231-points
“It feels great to be on the podium and with two very solid second place finishes. Clearly being the second fastest today was very good, but I know it’s not my full potential. I still struggle with a few little things that I can improve. Just small details that could make the difference and have me battling with Tim (Gajser). But, for now I am happy with second. I didn’t try to push or force the issue to catch Tim. So it was just a big step forward and now I look forward to the racing to come.”
Maxime Renaux
3rd MXGP of Italy, 40-points
2nd MXGP Championship Standings, 255-points
“I have to be happy with the result today because I was not happy with my riding. I didn’t ride like I know I can. I rushed a little bit and made some mistakes, which was not the best, but I have to see the positive. It’s still a podium in my rookie season and I stepped up to second in the championship. I also had two very consistent and good starts, so that was the main goal for this weekend. So, it’s a step forward and we keep learning and improving, looking to get closer to fight for the top step of the podium.”
Glenn Coldenhoff
10th MXGP of Italy, 22-points
5th MXGP Championship Standings, 199-points
“It was a big off weekend, I guess. My starts were not good, and riding was also not the best. It was just an off day, 10th overall is not where I want to be, so it’s a terrible weekend, we will put it in the past and look to bounce back in Riola next weekend.”
