The leading pair in the World Championship topped the table in the morning Warm-Up, and although Lucas Coenen doesn’t normally push in this session, maybe he wanted to send a message to Saturday’s Qualifying Race winner Romain Febvre with a final lap time that just about got him ahead of the Frenchman. Roan Van De Moosdijk was a surprise third for the KTM Kosak Team.
Knowing how important a good start can be around the Loket circuit, Coenen pulled a stunning Fox Holeshot by the tiniest of margins from Jan Pancar on his private TEM JP253 KTM, while another privateer, Isak Gifting on his JK Racing Yamaha, crucially pushed past Febvre in the second corner, and became an obstacle for the series leader for the next two laps until the Kawasaki man forced his way into third through a tight s-bend section!
By that time Coenen had already stretched out a nine-second lead over the impressive Pancar, but Febvre was unable to instantly make a move on the Slovenian. Ruben Fernandez had put his prototype Honda HRC machine into the top five from the start, and went around the outside of Gifting for fourth on lap four. Still behind Gifting was a wealth of factory talent: Jeremy Seewer for Aruba.it Ducati Factory MX Team, Maxime Renaux for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, Glenn Coldenhoff for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP, Seewer’s teammate Mattia Guadagnini, and a fast-starting Tom Koch on the MRT Racing Team Beta!
Seewer got past Gifting on lap nine, just as Coldenhoff made a move past Renaux for seventh. The Swiss rider made a mistake three laps later, however, and dropped to eighth, where he would finish. Guadagnini clashed with Brent Van Doninck on lap 16, an incident which put the Italian on the ground, and sent the Belgian down the pit lane entrance! Sadly for the JM Racing Honda man, he rode through the pit lane and got disqualified for not stopping, as per the regulations. This promoted Jago Geerts to ninth for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, and Brian Bogers up to tenth for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP.
Gifting was passed in the closing laps by Renaux for sixth, but after 12 laps of sitting in Pancar’s wake, Febvre finally made a move stick with an aggressive pass in a right hander to take second, with Coenen already long gone! Fernandez also made a move around the Slovenian four corners later, as Coldenhoff also closed in!
To the shock of everyone, Febvre then dropped the bike in the banked corner behind Pit Lane, and allowed Fernandez, Pancar, and Coldenhoff up to finish second, third, and fourth, leaving Febvre down in fifth and losing nine points to Coenen, leaving the gap at just seven!
Race two began with the Frenchman doing exactly what was required to take back the initiative – get a good start! Narrowly missing the Fox Holeshot by a tyre-width to Coldenhoff, Febvre had Coenen right behind him, but the Belgian was unable to make a pass on his Championship rival. Meanwhile, Renaux and Van Doninck were picking themselves up in the first corner in an incident which also brought Fernandez to a halt, although the Spaniard recovered brilliantly to sit in 13th by the end of the first full lap.
Gifting held a solid fourth ahead of Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP’s Calvin Vlaanderen, with Pancar well up again in sixth ahead of Seewer, Geerts, Bogers, and the third Fantic Factory Racing MXGP machine of Andrea Bonacorsi.
Febvre was able to edge ahead of Coldenhoff at the bottom of the circuit on lap three, but Coenen was not able to follow him past and sat behind “The Hoff” for most of the race.
Pancar hit troubles on lap seven, and even had to re-fit his chain partway through the race! His final result of 16th left him in ninth overall ahead of Bogers, a pale reflection of the speed the privateer showed all weekend. Bonacorsi got past Bogers for ninth at two-thirds distance, while a heroic Fernandez got all the way up to seventh after an aggressive move on Geerts with three laps to go. This left the Belgian eighth overall behind teammate Vlaanderen, who was locked into fifth behind Gifting all the way to the finish of race two.
Seewer took sixth in race two to lock in that position overall, while Gifting’s fifth overall marked a brilliant return to action after several GPs away! Fernandez had done enough with his brilliant recovery to salvage fourth overall.
At the front, Coenen was battling arm pump and took until lap 14 of 19 to make a firm inside pass on Coldenhoff for second. He closed the gap on Febvre considerably to within 2.5 seconds at the flag, but the red plate holder had nudged the Championship gap back up to ten points!
Coldenhoff’s third overall was his first ever podium at Loket on his twelfth attempt, and reinforces his position of third in the series by 43 points over Fernandez. Coenen took his 14th career Grand Prix win with a 1-2 scorecard, while Febvre’s second overall was his twelfth podium finish in a row.
The battle for the red plate moves to Coenen’s home GP next weekend at Lommel, where Febvre has won two GPs in the past, so both riders will doubtlessly bring their ‘A’ game to continue what is turning into an enthralling duel for the 2025 MXGP World Championship!