Source: Husqvarna.

After a grim day of treacherous rain yesterday where the circuit and venue took a hammering from water, it was unbelievable how amazing Maggiora shaped up today to host the qualifying races at round nine of the FIM Motocross World Championship.

With surprisingly picture perfect conditions, it was both red plate holders Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Max Nagl and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings who cleaned up.

The MXGP riders were lucky as the rain that was threatened failed to amount, which left the track dry but still very technically challenging.

When the gates dropped it looked as though the two fastest in Timed Practice, Team HRC’s Evgeny Bobryshev and Gautier Paulin, would lead the way around turn one. Instead, the two collided and went down.

Wilvo Forkrent KTM’s Steven Frossard was the one who nabbed the holeshot in this instance followed by Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Antonio Cairoli and Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Max Nagl.

As the trio exited turn three, there was an epic roar from the crowd as the legend Antonio Cairoli took the lead. Uncharacteristically Cairoli failed to complete the first lap because of a crash that forced him out of the race.

With Cairoli out, Nagl took the lead and then it was game over for the rest of MXGP as the red plate holder ran away for his first qualifying heat victory of the season.

Meanwhile behind the German, Frossard put in a phenomenal performance before he lost the front around the midway mark and retired.

It was Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Jeremy Van Horebeek who capitalized on the mistakes of Cairoli and Frossard and took home a comfortable second ahead Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM’s Shaun Simpson who came home in third.

The most impressive performance of the day was undoubtedly that of Bobryshev who rallied his way from last all the way up to fourth. Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe’s Glenn Coldenhoff also put in a great performance for fifth.

Australian Husqvarna duo Todd Waters and Dean Ferris qualified 10th and 14th respectively in the lead-up to Sunday’s races.

As for Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MXGP’s Clement Desalle, he went out in free practice but still cannot ride due to a shoulder and a knee injury, so he has withdrawn.

In MX2 there was no catching the Red Bull KTM Factory bikes out of the gate as Pauls Jonass snatched the holeshot from Herlings.

Herlings knows the importance of a good start and wasted no time in squirting up the inside of his teammate to take over the lead.

Jonass then tried to tuck in behind Herlings but had to switch from attack to defense mode with Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Thomas Covington and Standing Construct Yamaha Yamalube’s Valentin Guillod all over him like a rash.

Covington soon made life easier for everyone when he went down in the first few laps while Guillod, hasty in moving forward kept Herlings in his sights.

With Jonass dropping back to third, the next challenger for the Latvian was the defending champion Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jordi Tixier who, six laps in, managed to make his way past.

Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki’s Max Anstie was the next rider to start reeling Jonass in after passing Honda Gariboldi’s Tim Gajser in the early stages of the race. Both Anstie and Gajser were gifted a position when Jonass went down.

Wilvo Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Aleksandr Tonkov also took advantage of Jonass’ fault and moved up to sixth which soon became fifth as Anstie suffered another engine malfunction.

At the chequered flag, it was Herlings who rode flawless for the win while Guillod put in a solid performance for second. Tixier was also unchallenged in third followed by Gajser and Tonkov respectively.

Click here for detailed results