Retrospective win for Maxime Renaux at contentious German MXGP

By Team TMX on 4th Oct 21

MXGP Jago Geerts Teutschenthal Maxime Renaux Thibault Benistant

Maxime Renaux was awarded a retrospective victory at a contentious 11th round of the FIM Motocross World Championship in Teutschenthal, Germany.

The Frenchman celebrated a ninth podium appearance and was later awarded the Grand Prix win by race direction after a two-place penalty hit countryman Tom Vialle for jumping while a yellow flag was waved.

Renaux now has a commanding lead in the MX2 championship with an 84-point margin over teammate Jago Geerts who finished two-points shy of the podium with a fourth overall.

The third member of the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 team, Thibault Benistant, had a Grand Prix to forget finishing 12th after crashing in both races.

In the opening race, Renaux and his teammates enjoyed strong starts with the red plate holder in fourth with Benistant and Geerts in tow. As the laps clicked off, Renaux increased his pace and before the end of lap four, the Frenchman had made a pass for third.

Geerts took a more careful approach in the opening stages. In front of a wild crowd, the Belgian made a pass on local hero Simon Langenfelder for fourth but finished fifth after he was nudged back a position by Jed Beaton.

Meanwhile, Renaux settled into a formidable rhythm and edged closer to the leaders but eventually ran out of time to make a pass stick. He finished third.

As for Benistant, the #198 crashed dramatically out of fourth position on the second lap, and after rejoining the race in last position, he fought his way back to 16th.

Proving the undeniable power of the YZ250FM, all three riders fronted the field on the exit of turn-one in the final race of the day. Almost a blueprint copy of race one, Renaux was again the best-placed Yamaha rider in front of Benistant and Geerts.

As Renaux chased the defending champion Vialle, Benistant spectacularly crashed out of third position when he caught his footpeg at the top of a jump face. Geerts inherited the final place in the top three and finished there 16-seconds off Renaux. While Renaux and Geerts physically crossed the finish line in second and third, respectively, both riders gained one position after Vialle received a yellow-flag infringement. Renaux was awarded the race win and Geerts was bumped up to second.

Meanwhile, Benistant treated the highly animated crowd to a thrilling battle of wits as he used some creative lines to pass riders on his charge back to a ninth-place finish.

Maxime Renaux: "Today was a good day. Two solid races and two solid results. The goal now is to stay steady and not take any big risks, although I did try to push for the win in the second race. Now, I can take the red plate to my home round in France. I really look forward to that to have the French public there and cheering. I have never experienced that before so I am looking forward to it."

Jago Geerts: "I am pretty happy with the result. I was riding well but I made some small mistakes and finished fifth. I was happy with my speed but I lost my rhythm a little bit at the end. In the second heat, I was a little bit better. I know I need to keep working to find more speed so that I can battle with Tom (Vialle) and Maxime (Renaux).

Thibault Benistant: "Today was not a really good day for me. I took two really good starts but I had some big crashes because I was attacking too much. This is something I am working on, I want to be more aggressive in the first laps, but I was pushing too much and then I crashed and had to start from last. So it was quite a difficult weekend for me."

The next round of the FIM Motocross World Championship will take place in Lacapelle Marival, France, on October 10.

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