Lucas Coenen near perfect in MX2 Turkey GP
Words and images courtesy MXGP
After a disaster at the previous MX2 round, Lucas Coenen got back to winning ways for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, as a near-perfect weekend at Afyon Motor Sports Centre of the MXGP of Türkiye helped him to close in on his teammate Kay de Wolf and keep his Championship hopes alive!
With Lucas Coenen setting the fastest time in morning Warm-Up for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, Ferruccio Zanchi was a good second in the session, and the Italian who celebrated his 18th birthday on Friday took those good vibes to claim his first career GP Fox Holeshot Award in race one for Team HRC!
However, his lead was short-lived as Simon Laengenfelder found amazing drive into the second corner to take the lead for Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing, with Coenen hot on his heels. Fastest man in Saturday’s Practice sessions, Mikkel Haarup, got up into third for Monster Energy Triumph Racing, but coming out of the fourth corner he hit the ground! Zanchi could not miss him and also went down, as did Haarup’s teammate Camden McLellan, but it was Championship leader Kay de Wolf who had a lucky escape, having to run off the track but staying upright to charge again towards the front!
Meanwhile, De Wolf’s teammate and Championship rival Coenen fired past Laengenfelder and tried to build a lead from there. RAM Qualifying Race winner Liam Everts was initially third for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, with the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 pairing of Thibault Benistant and Karlis Reisulis chasing him. Everts slid to the ground in the first corner at the start of lap three however, allowing the Yamaha riders to pass him!
Quentin Prugnieres was showing good speed for F & H Racing, and he put an aggressive pass on Everts to get into fifth! He then mounted the most impressive charge we’ve seen from him in MX2, passing both Yamaha riders in successive laps to get up to third! Everts came through with him, however, and suddenly powered past the Frenchman from Réunion Island to take back third at the halfway point of the race, the end of lap eight.
By this time De Wolf had charged up to fifth, bringing Everts’ teammate, a slow-starting Andrea Adamo with him, as Benistant crashed down the order. His teammate Rick Elzinga was rising into the top ten, but had to deal with the Triumph pairing of Haarup and McLellan, who were fighting back from their first lap crash, as well as fighting each other for much of the race!
At the front, Laengenfelder had surprised Coenen by passing him for the lead on lap seven, but the Belgian was far from done. Prugnieres fell just after being passed by Everts and dropped to an eventual tenth place finish. Elzinga passed Reisulis to put the two Yamaha men eighth and ninth, behind the Triumphs of Haarup and McLellan, who got back to sixth and seventh respectively.
Everts, De Wolf, and Adamo held station to bring home third to fifth positions, but Coenen had a sting in the tail for Laengenfelder, as the pair swapped places several times! The Belgian made the decisive move with two laps to go to take his 13th race win of the season and close the gap in the Championship to 47 points between the teammates!
Those two teammates knew that the chips were down, and the pair battled for the Fox Holeshot Award at the start of race two! The Belgian won that, only his second of the season, but De Wolf grabbed the advantage into the second corner, and it looked set to be a duel between the Championship rivals!
However, a French fly got in the mix, as Prugnieres again showed audacity by passing several riders, including Coenen with a stunning move to take second by the end of the first full lap! His pit board gave the instruction that he was already adhering to – “No Respect” for his more experienced competition! He held fast as Coenen twice tried to pass on the corner leading onto the start straight, but finally the Husqvarna man got through on lap six, quickly followed by Haarup.
Everts was the next rider along two laps later, and with a slightly aggressive move took fourth from the rookie. The retaliatory move in the next corner ended with Quentin being thrown from his bike, miraculously landing on his feet! He would eventually finish thirteenth, a scant reward for his early speed.
Laengenfelder had been pushed down the field on the opening lap and had to work back to fourth with a move on Everts through the waves. Behind them, Elzinga finished sixth ahead of Reisulis, with McLellan taking eighth, as he would do in the overall. Adamo had suffered another terrible start but made a last lap move on Zanchi to claim ninth, and seventh overall, with his countryman finishing tenth in the race.
In the overall GP it was Benistant who claimed tenth with two eleventh places, behind Reisulis in ninth. The other Yamaha of Elzinga claimed sixth overall behind Haarup, and Laengenfelder’s pass on Everts was good enough to take the final step of the podium away from the Belgian.
After getting past Prugnieres, Coenen set about the near four-second gap to De Wolf and reeled his teammate in as his pit board read “Showtime” on lap eleven! The red plate holder held on grimly to the lead, but finally with huge speed on the inside of the split-lane section, it was Lucas who took the advantage on the very last lap of the weekend! Kay spun sideways in a corner trying to take it back, and the race was done!
An ecstatic Lucas Coenen took his eighth career GP win, and seventh of the season, matching his teammate in both departments as they took a 1-2 on the overall podium. The gap between them is still a significant 44 points, but the chances of De Wolf wrapping up the title in China now look slim, and in the MX2 class anything is possible!
In both classes the fight is still very much on, and the paddock packs the flight cases to head to Shanghai for the penultimate round, The Oriental Beauty Valley MXGP of China next weekend
Podium Quotes
Lucas Coenen: “It was a good bounce back from Switzerland where I struggled a lot and made some mistakes. But today first race I almost did the same as second race, following the lines of Simon (Laengenfelder) and then Kay (de Wolf) in the second race, a bit later in the race but it worked well for me. Track was tough so I had to make my move and let’s sent it. I made my way up to P1 in the last lap, so that’s amazing to pass like that, Now we have still two rounds to go. We’ll have fun and we’ll go back to work.”
Kay de Wolf: “it was a difficult weekend. I felt actually really good in RAM Qualifying and then something happened that could have been avoided. But yeah, today was a new day and I struggled a lot this morning in the first race as well. To pass, the track was really slippery in the beginning I turned it around amazingly and a good one for the big picture and I’m happy with it so yeah I’ll take it all in and go on to China now.”
Simon Laengenfelder: “I was feeling good. The track was really different from yesterday, but I enjoyed riding it. It was really difficult to pass, so second race was tough to get in that fourth position, and even to stay there when you’re sandwiched between two riders. But we made it happen, third overall, so we’re going to go to China happy!”
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), 34:49.525; 2. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:05.288; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:42.197; 4. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:52.862; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:55.253; 6. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:55.458; 7. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +1:00.815; 8. Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +1:07.687; 9. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +1:11.514; 10. Quentin Marc Prugnieres (FRA, Kawasaki), +1:16.808;
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), 34:23.346; 2. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:03.990; 3. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:10.281; 4. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:11.457; 5. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:11.835; 6. Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +0:25.495; 7. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:26.490; 8. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:27.617; 9. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:43.661; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +0:44.817;
MX2 Overall – Top 10 Classification:
1 . Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 50 points; 2. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 40 p.; 3. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 40 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 36 p.; 5. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 35 p.; 6. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 28 p.; 7. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 28 p.; 8. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 27 p.; 9. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 26 p.; 10. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 20 p
MX2 – World Championship Classification:
1. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 873 points; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 829 p.; 3. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 774 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 727 p.; 5. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 624 p.; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 601 p.; 7. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 539 p.; 8. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 456 p.; 9. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 368 p.; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 338 p
MX2 – Manufacturers Classification:
1. Husqvarna, 995 points; 2. KTM, 866 p.; 3. GASGAS, 781 p.; 4. Triumph, 670 p.; 5. Yamaha, 632 p.; 6. Honda, 373 p.; 7. Kawasaki, 337 p.; 8. Fantic, 251 p.; 9. TM, 60 p