Those wishes were not granted, however, as he sand-surfed his way around the outside of Vialle to lead into turn two, even though the Frenchman claimed his seventh Fox Holeshot Award of the season to equal Lucas Coenen at the top of that table!
De Wolf was further back even than in race one, but Gajser and Febvre were closer and the pair nearly came to grief as they both tried to make a move on Vialle! Febvre it was who got past his countryman in the outcome of that tangle, then Gajser launched the factory Yamaha off the wall jump to take third! De Wolf had recovered well to get to fifth by the end of the first full lap, ahead of Fernandez, Van de Moosdijk, Gifting, Renaux, and the Becker Racing KTM of Max Spies. Adamo was swiftly past the German, but then suffered a typical sand crash with a front wheel washout, and Spies actually passed Renaux to sit in ninth by the end of lap four!
Herlings was streaking ahead as De Wolf caught Gajser, and fought into third with a gap to bridge in order to reach Febvre in second. Adamo was also in good form after his crash, passing Spies and Renaux on lap six, then two laps later he toppled Gifting and Van de Moosdijk in consecutive circulations to reach seventh. Only two more laps later he made an inside move on Fernandez, and looked set to stay there until the end.
By this time, Herlings begun to signal to Pit Lane that he was having issues, and his pitboard came out with the message of “No Clutch” in order to preserve the machine. His teammate Vialle advanced on Gajser, passing him for fourth on lap 12 of the eventual 17. De Wolf never stopped charging, and advanced on Febvre with three laps to go. The Frenchman pushed on, but suffered a massive crash that sent him over the handlebars, and was clipped by De Wolf as the Dutchman was unable to avoid him!
Amazingly, the Champ remounted still in third, but with just a few corners to go his machine, possibly damaged in the heavy prang, stopped on the face of the jump. He had lapped enough people to leave him in 13th position, those eight points enough to keep him in the top ten overall, ninth ahead of Horgmo, who ended race two in ninth position after another solid ride.
Spies was the last rider on the lead lap in 12th position, but Van de Moosdijk was promoted into the top ten by Febvre’s crash. One of the best charges of the race was by Watson, who got up to seventh at the flag ahead of Gifting, which is where the two men finished overall. It was the Brit’s best overall result since May 2022 at Maggiora! The Swede’s finish was also his best since this round last year.
Adamo and Fernandez ended both race two, and the day overall, in fifth and sixth, while Vialle’s third wasn’t quite enough to get onto the podium. That honour went to Gajser, his fifth podium of the year, with De Wolf a satisfied second.
The problems for Herlings didn’t impact his speed, just maybe his mood as he took his 120th career victory, and a record fifth win at Lommel, in his stride. Febvre moved past Coenen into second in the series, 104 points behind “The Bullet”. The Dutchman is looking strong, but knows that nothing is decided yet.
The series switches back to a harder surface, the weekend after next, in Sweden at Uddevalla, where Febvre went 1-1-1 last year as Isak Gifting drove the fans wild! Just what can this year bring for us?