• Positive return to MX2 for Ferruccio Zanchi
Located on the central-western coast of Sardinia, about 100 kilometers north of Cagliari, Riola Sardo has been the epicenter of the Motocross World Championship for over a decade, hosting training and winter preparations for the majority of the world championship’s teams and riders. 1,750 meters long, the winding Sardinian track winds through sand dunes, alternating between large jumps and technical and challenging sections that make the track particularly treacherous, with a surface that changes with every lap, presenting ever-changing difficulties.
Calvin Vlaanderen showed character, lining up last at the starting gate after retiring from Saturday’s qualifying race. At the start of Race One, he was outside the top 20, but he tenaciously fought his way up to a final fifteenth place. The Dutchman got off to a better start in the second race, moving close to the top 10. Eighth with seven laps to go, the Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team rider moved to 10th under the checkered flag, finishing 12th overall, just one point shy of the day’s top 10. Andrea Bonacorsi got off to a good start in the first race, climbing from 12th to 10th in the opening laps, but was hampered by an electrical problem while fighting for ninth place and forced to retire. In race two, the Bergamo native got off to a good start on his Desmo450 MX and was seventh after three laps, proving he could match the pace of the frontrunners. A drop in pace, due to the prolonged layoff caused by the injury sustained in Argentina, caused him to gradually slide down the standings, ultimately finishing in twenty-third place. Jeremy Seewer had a difficult weekend in Sardinia, failing to score points in both races.
Calvin Vlanderen: “I just really struggled the whole weekend to get comfortable and to allow myself to push on the track. I just couldn’t find the comfort to push but it matured with my riding, my speed is just not there. We changed the shock for the second race and I felt like we made some good improvement. So that was positive, and we keep going we don’t give up and we’ll be in Arco fresh and ready to go.”
Andrea Bonacorsi: “I have to first of all thank the whole team and all the staff, because they put a lot of effort and even if I came back in the hardest race of the year, both for me and for the bike, we have seen positive things and we’ve seen that I can be in front and fight; we have to stay positive, we have Arco and then a month without races, so I’m sure that we’ll be able to catch up a lot and then we’ll show what we really are made of from there.”
Jeremy Seewer: “It was a difficult weekend, on one of the most challenging tracks for us; we must continue to work hard to improve.”
Ferruccio Zanchi returns to racing in Riola after a month-long layoff due to the injury that delayed his MX2 debut on the Desmo250 MX, forcing him to miss the first three rounds of the 2026 season. Having returned to the most demanding track of the entire World Championship with a brilliant ninth place in Saturday’s qualifying race, Zanchi started outside the top ten in race one but found an excellent pace and climbed to ninth. Running 10th with four laps to go, Ferruccio was stopped by a technical problem. A thrilling start to race two saw the Tuscan rider finish fourth after two laps, battling with the best in his category. A crash during the seventh lap dropped the Beddini Racing Ducati Factory MX2 Team rider to thirteenth place, forcing him into a test of endurance that saw him finish 14th.
Ferruccio Zanchi: “First weekend back after a month long stop; it’s been good, we’ve seen there are positives, until the second manche in the races I was always in the top ten, so a good result especially considering what we had seen before. Speed was good, the riding was also pretty good and it’s fine; the first weekend is a starting point. In the second manche I finished my energies but that’s okay, now we have to slowly build upon this.”
The riders of the EMX250 European Championship have also competed this weekend in Sardinia, with Simone Mancini, fresh from his podium finish in Switzerland before Easter, racing in the third round of the season. Qualifying 15th, the Beddini Racing Ducati Factory MX2 Team rider crashed at the start of the first race, but managed to recover from 40th to finish 22nd. Outside of the top 20 at the start of race two, Simone recovered, quickly climbing to 15th when a rival crashed in front of him on the second lap, causing him to suffer a nasty crash that left him winded. Taken to the circuit’s medical center for precautionary tests, the rider from the Marche region was released after ruling out any physical injuries and will be able to start the next race in Trentino in a week.
Simone Mancini: “It was quite a difficult weekend; I hadn’t started badly in free practice, and in qualifying I set the 15th fastest time, which wasn’t what I wanted, but I was finding a good feeling with the the track and had established a good pace. In the first heat, I had a poor start and crashed on the second turn, but I managed to make up positions. In race two, I got a bad start, outside the top 20, but I quickly got back into the top 15, then a rider crashed in front of me, and I couldn’t avoid him. I was left breathless for a while, and they took me to the medical center for checks. Luckily, we came out of it unhurt, and we’ll definitely make up for it in Arco.”
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