Tonus & Seewer Extend Yamaha’s Total Podium Tally in 2019 to 16

Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha MXGP’s Arnaud Tonus and Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP’s Jeremy Seewer keep the ball rolling for Yamaha at the 12th round of the MXGP World Championship in Semarang, Indonesia. The Swiss duo stood on the second and third steps of the podium, extending Yamaha’s total podium tally in the premier class this season to 16. As a result, Seewer has moved up to second position in the MXGP Championship Standings, while Tonus has moved up to fourth.

In the opening race, Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP’s duo of Jeremy Seewer & Romain Febvre got their YZ450FM’s off to flying starts. The pair went bar-to-bar for a place inside the top-three on the opening laps before Febvre hit a ‘polished’ spot under acceleration upon entering the wave section on Lap-3 and fell from fourth position.

With the blue-groove Semarang clay being extremely hard-packed and slippery, the circuit demanded respect. Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha MXGP’s Arnaud Tonus took his time to find his lines, and eventually found his rhythm, while his teammate Gautier Paulin struggled to get comfortable.

On lap-9 all three riders inherited one position when Pauls Jonass fell from second position, while Tonus blitzed past Arminas Jasikonis to steal third. As the temperatures rose, the riders had to scrape the bottom of the barrel in search of energy. Tonus gave everything he had and was rewarded with second position when Seewer high-sided at the back of the circuit.

Tonus managed to finish 3-seconds adrift of the eventual race winner, Tim Gajser, while ’91’ made a quick remount and held onto third. Paulin eventually crossed the ‘line in ninth, while Febvre was unable to continue after he bent his handlebars in the fall.

Seewer managed to hit another milestone in the final race of the weekend, when he took his first holeshot of the season. The Swiss sensation was chased around turn-one by Tonus, after Febvre made a small mistake and dropped back to sixth.

The opening race winner, Gajser, took over the lead on the opening lap and left the Swiss riders to duel over second position before Tonus made a small mistake on Lap-6 and allowed Jonass to enter the frey. Jonass capitalized and moved up to second position with a buoyant Tonus in his wake.

Tonus entered a thrilling battle with Jonass for second but was unable to make a pass stick, while Seewer did not want to take any risks on the unforgiving surface and settled for fourth position. Febvre finished unchallenged in fifth after Paulin fell from fifth position on Lap-11 and eventually came home in eighth.

Tonus finished second overall and uncorked his sixth bottle of champagne this season. He has moved up to fourth-position in the MXGP Championship Standings. Seewer celebrated a third podium finish from the third step and has moved up to second position in the MXGP Championship Standings. Their success marks a sixth consecutive double podium finish for Yamaha and the YZ450F.

Paulin finished the Grand Prix in eighth position and is now fifth in the Championship Standings. He trails his teammate by 3-points. With no points scored in the opening race, Febvre was thirteenth in the Grand Prix overall. He remains tenth in the championship standings.

The next round of the MXGP World Championship will take place in Loket, Czech Republic on the weekend of July 28th.