Image: Octopi Media.

Australians Hunter Lawrence, Jett Lawrence and Mitch Evans have qualified third for the 2022 Monster Energy Motocross of Nations (MXoN) at RedBud, with the home Team USA leading the way on Saturday.

It was Jago Geerts (Belgium) who won the opening heat of the day in convincing fashion, finishing 3.478s clear of Eli Tomac (USA) in MXGP after he made a final turn move on Jeremy Seewer (Switzerland) for position.

Seewer took the holeshot before an error enabled Mitch Evans (Australia) to take his turn at the front. Geerts then took charge in the mid-stages and that’s where he would remain, despite Tomac charging through the pack into P2.

Behind the podium trio came Evans, with Jorge Prado (Spain) fifth after setting the pace in free practice earlier, followed by Glenn Coldenhoff (The Netherlands), Maxime Renaux (France), Dean Wilson (Great Britain), Tony Cairoli (Italy) from the rear of the field and Dylan Wright (Canada).

MX2 was effectively dominated by Justin Cooper (USA), setting the pace from the front to win by 18.809s ahead of Hunter Lawrence (Australia) and Marvin Musquin (France).

Spaniard Guillem Farres – equipped with a Star Racing Yamaha – holeshot and eventually settled into take fourth, followed by Andrea Adamo (Italy), Simon Langenfelder (Germany), Liam Everts (Belgium), Hardy Munoz (Chile), Kevin Horgmo (Norway) and Josh Varize (Guam).

There were difficulties for a mixture of the contenders, with Jo Shimoda (Japan) rebounding from a heavy fall for 12th, Max Anstie (Great Britain) finishing 18th, Kay de Wolf (The Netherlands) enduring a late issue for 19th and Valentin Guillod (Switzerland) was a non-finisher.

The Open category was last to hit the track today, where a determined Dylan Ferrandis (France) capitalised on a final lap error from Chase Sexton (USA) to win by 3.502s in that order.

After starting third, Sexton swiftly made his way by Ferrandis and Calvin Vlaanderen (The Netherlands), while behind them, Jett Lawrence (Australia) had his hands full with Ruben Fernandez (Spain) after that pair went back and forth for position.

In the end, Ferrandis topped Sexton and Lawrence, with Fernandez fourth, Vlaanderen fifth and positions six through 10 filled by Harri Kullas (Estonia), Fredrik Noren (Sweden), Mattia Guadagnini (Italy), Lorenzo Locurcio (Venezuela) and Tommy Searle (Great Britain).

Once the scores were settled – the strongest two finishers used per country – it was Team USA that qualified atop the leaderboard, ahead of France by virtue of Ferrandis’ final heat win and Australia.

Broadcast information for Sunday’s trio of Nations motos was published yesterday and stay tuned for rolling coverage through the MotoOnline website and social media accounts.

Detailed results