The Grand Prix of Italy in Mantua ended with a surprisingly almost dry Sunday, as the day was predicted to be rainy. Rain actually came out before the start to the MX1 final moto, at the end of which Marc de Reuver took his maiden MX1 Grand Prix win. In the MX2 class Antonio "Tony" Cairoli set the crowd on fire with a brilliant win, making up for a Moto 1 crash; Tyla Rattray was second overall today and still leads the standings ahead of the Italian, while home rider David Philippaerts retained the MX1 red plate courtesy of another podium result.
MX1 CLASS
It was an incredible weekend for Martin Honda's Marc de Reuver; the latter took the Pole Position Award yesterday and eventually topped the podium of this fifth Grand Prix, marking his comeback to victory after his last success in Sevlievo 2006, which was another wet race. This victory was a stepping stone for Honda as well, as the last Honda rider topping the podium was Ken de Dycker in 2007 (Uddevalla) and this is the first GP win since the manufacturer is officially back in the GP series. GPKR's Sebastien Pourcel was second after he took the victory in heat one; on the other hand he went down twice and made a lot of mistakes in the final wet heat. Yamaha Monster Motocross' David Philippaerts also showed up on his home rostrum to collect both the Cup and the red plate. Teka Suzuki WMX1's Ken de Dycker and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Max Nagl rounded off the top five as the latter dominated the second moto.
MX1 MOTO1
Sebastien Pourcel put in a stunning performance in the opening heat, taking a start to checkers victory in dominant style despite De Dycker trying to close in several times. The Belgian settled for a safe second while a battle went on for the third spot. De Reuver made a mistake to let Mackenzie by; the Brit eventually had an highside crash with De Reuver moving back up to third ahead of Coppins. Philippaerts rounded out the top five at the end of an eventful first moto, crashing out at the third corner after the start. The home rider worked his way up from last, making his final move on both Tanel Leok and the defending world champion Ramon in one single determined lap.
MX1 MOTO2
The final heat was a different story as the rain started to hit the track right before the start. That was time for Max Nagl to show his speed in the slippery conditions, as the German took the eventual victory in a Pourcel-like style. Philippaerts got the start alright to cruise in second for the entire moto, giving priority to the Championship points instead of the overall win. De Reuver sealed the overall by taking once again a third place finish despite stalling the bike once; Pourcel, who was level in points with the Dutchman, slipped twice to go backwards in the overall standings. Mackenzie rode to fourth with Coppins rounding off the top five after having taken the holeshot. De Dycker and Pourcel were respectively sixth and seventh.
Marc DeReuver: "In all of Saturday's practices I was first and so I was very confident for today. But then in warm-up this morning all the lines had changed and the track wasn't flowing as well for me and all of a sudden I didn't feel quite as confident. I have been feeling sick for the past few days and I am losing my voice plus with the rain overnight I wasn't really looking forward to today's races to be honest. In the first heat I got the holeshot but Pourcel passed me, then I made some mistakes and I crashed riding over a hay bail and getting the bike stuck for a moment, then I crashed again but I still managed to finish third - quite easily really.
"In the second heat I didn't have such a good a start but I worked my way up to third and I was closing the gap with Philippaerts until I stalled the bike. I restarted it quite easily again and got going with no problems and from there I concentrated hard on finishing without crashing. I didn't know I had won the overall until after I crossed the line and my team was going crazy. It's the team's home GP of course and so I'm very happy I could win it for them and for Honda - it made me feel really good. From here I want to podium at every race and I know that I can do that. I also want to win a moto as well as more GPs."