Nederlands
Thibault Benistant of Hutten Metaal Yamaha Racing delivered an impressive performance during the sixteenth round of the MX2 motocross world championship series at Arco di Trento in Italy. Benistant finished second in the final heat in only his second GP, and showed his potential at the very top level of racing.
The track of Arco di Trento has a hard base with many elevation changes, which makes for a huge different to the track at Lommel that confronted the riders the week before, where Thibault made his GP debut. The differences between the riders were small during qualification, and Thibault managed to secure the tenth gate, 1.6 second off pole.
The first race started with a setback for Benistant who crashed just after the start, relegating him to last place. He remained calm and started making passes one by one. By half race distance, he had moved into the points, but still his up march continued. He eventually crossed the line in 15th position.
The Yamaha-mounted rider bulleted off the start in race two, slotting into second place. Benistant kept race leader Tom Vialle in sight, and rode a strong race. Benistant was later passed by fellow Yamaha rider Jago Geerts, but when Vialle crashed, he reclaimed second position. Benistant kept Geerts in sight and crossed the line just two seconds adrift of the leader.
Thibault finished sixth overall for the GP. He will have his next world championship outing at the same track on Wednesday.
Overall Grand Prix MX2 Arco di Trento:
1 Jago Geerts 43 Pnt
2 Thomas Kjer Olsen 43 Pnt
3 Tom Vialle 42 Pnt
4 Jed Beaton32 Pnt
5 Maxime Renaux 29 Pnt
6 Thibault Benistant 28 Pnt