Title favourites Cairoli and Villopoto finish off the podium.
Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing new recruit Max Nagl has taken a clean-sweep at Qatar’s opening round of the 2015 MXGP World Championship.
Nagl won both motos for the overall ahead of Clement Desalle’s (Rockstar Energy Suzuki) 2-2 scorecard, with Gautier Paulin (Team HRC) third with 4-3 finishes.
The anticipated match-up between world champion Antonio Cairoli (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Ryan Villopoto (Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team) never eventuated, with Cairoli narrowly missing the podium on countback with 3-4 results.
Villopoto’s debut was a disastrous one, forced to rebound from dead-last when his bike wouldn’t run at the beginning of moto one, eventually climbing to ninth despite two crashes. After finishing eighth in moto two he was credited seventh overall.
Husqvarna-mounted Australian pair Todd Waters (15-13) and Dean Ferris (23-17) were 14th and 20th overall at the opening round.
In MX2 Jeffrey Herlings (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) won both motos to take the round win, trailed by Julien Lieber (Yamaha) and Dylan Ferrandis (Kawasaki).
Livia Lancelot (Kawasaki) won the opening WMX round at Qatar with two moto victories, as Kiara Fontanesi (Yamaha) and Aussie Meghan Rutledge (Kawasaki) completed the podium. Jessica Moore raced to ninth overall.
2015 MXGP World Championship
Round one – Losail, Qatar
MXGP overall results:
1. Max Nagl 50
2. Clement Desalle 44
3. Gautier Paulin 38
4. Antonio Cairoli 38
5. Jeremy Van Horebeek 32
6. Romain Febvre 29
7. Ryan Villopoto 25
8. Evgeny Bobryshev 25
9. Kevin Strijbos 24
10. Shaun Simpson 21
14. Todd Waters (AUS) 14
20. Dean Ferris (AUS) 4
MX2 overall results:
1. Jeffrey Herlings 50
2. Julien Lieber 42
3. Dylan Ferrandis 38
4. Tim Gajser 32
5. Aleksandr Tonkov 31
6. Pauls Jonass 30
7. Jeremy Seewer 29
8. Valentin Guillod 28
9. Jordi Tixier 27
10. Tomas Covington 2
WMX overall results:
1. Livia Lancelot 50
2. Kiara Fontanesi 44
3. Meghan Rutledge (AUS) 38
4. Francesca Nocera 33
5. Genette Vaage 30
6. Anne Borchers 28
7. Nancy Van De Ven 25
8. Amandine Verstappen 24
9. Jessica Moore (AUS) 23
10. Justine Charroux 21