After the Grand Prix of Spain – in which he finished second – Jago Geerts is firmly in the lead for the FIM World Championship. The Belgian increased his lead on Adamo from 36 to 48 points. Thibault Benistant finished fifth in Arroyomolinos, Rick Elzinga tenth.

Sun, lots of sun in Arroymolinos. The temperature smoothly rose towards 30 degrees this weekend. So, it was puffing for the riders. Although, Jago Geerts did not seem to have problems with the heat during the qualifying race on Saturday. The Belgian took the holeshot, quickly made a nice gap and then controlled the race to the finish. Thibault Benistant struggled initially, but improved in the second half of the race and finished sixth. For a long time, Rick Elzinga fought for a place inside the top 10, but then he suffered from stomach cramps and finished in P19.

Holeshot Benistant

Benistant – who clearly wanted to do better after his off-day in Portugal last weekend – came out of the gate like a rocket in the first moto and took the holeshot. The Frenchman was closely followed by Längenfelder and teammate Elzinga.
After his good start on Saturday, Geerts completely missed his start for the first moto. Jago reacted too late at the gate, got completely trapped and came into the first turn around P17. The vice world champion reacted as if stung by a wasp. Geerts barely needed a few turns to join the top 10 and after three laps he was already in fifth place. But Geerts wanted more. In lap six he passed his teammate Benistant with a nice move, and a little later on the triple he literally and figuratively jumped over De Wolf to the second place. Leader Längenfelder had already built up a gap of almost 10 seconds. Geerts soon realized that catching up with the leader was impossible, saved energy and secured his second place.
Benistant – who lost the lead in favour of Längenfelder after a lap and a half – was fighting De Wolf for third place for almost the entire moto. The Dutchman tried everything, but Titi didn’t gave up. Elzinga started very strong, but then – logically, because he felt sick – gradually lost some places to finish in P13.

Too fast
The Monster Energy Yamaha Factory riders had a good start for the second moto : Geerts on second, Benistant on four and Elzinga on eight. Geerts – who suffered of a sore throat – tried to catch up with Längenfelder, but soon he realized that the German’s pace was a bit too high. The World Championship leader therefore decided not to take too many risks and to try to keep his second place. Something that worked well for him.
Benistant had a déjà vu, because he had to battle with De Wolf again. This time for the fourth place. Thibault defended himself firmly, but in the end had to bow to the Dutchman. Elzinga felt a little better in the second race and was able to finish just into the top 10.
Geerts extends his lead for the World Championship and is now 48 points ahead of Adamo. Benistant drops from the fourth to the fifth place, Elzinga remains eleventh.

#93 JAGO GEERTS
2nd overall, 1st in World Championship
“A solid weekend, with again a place on the box. In the first moto I completely missed my start. I managed to come back in second place but the gap with Längenfelder was already to big then. In the second moto I was immediately on his rear wheel, but he was just too fast. I had to take risks to follow him. I also made a few mistakes. So I decided to secure the second place again.”

#198 THIBAULT BENISTANT
5th overall, 5th in the World Championship
“Fifth overall. It is already a good improvement comparing to last weekend in Portugal. Yet, I’m not satisfied. On this kind of hard pack tracks I just have to do better. But we miss something. And we are searching hard in the team to find a solution. Of course this is frustrating and mentally tough. But we keep on working hard. And I will be back. Hopefully already in two weeks time, in front of my own fans in Villars sous Ecot.”

#44 RICK ELZINGA
10th overall, 11th in the World Championship
“Considering the circumstances, I’m quite happy with this tenth place. I suffered the whole weekend from stomach cramps. Did I eat something wrong? Is it the heat? No idea. The beginning of the motos were good, my starts were okay. But after fifteen, twenty minutes I got those stomach cramps. I lost all my energy. I’ve been missing some luck lately.”

Qualifying race

1 JAGO GEERTS (Bel/Yam)

2 Lucas Coenen (Bel/Hus) +0:04.305

3 Simon Längenfelder (Ger/Gas) +0:05.428

4 Kay de Wolf (Ned/Hus) +0:07.245

5 Andrea Adamo (Ita/KTM) +0:16.033

6 THIBAULT BENISTANT (Fra/Yam) +0:22.572

19 RICK ELZINGA (Ned/Yam) +1:24.509

Race 1

1 Simon Längenfelder (Ger/Gas)

2 JAGO Geerts (Bel/Yam) +0:08.839

3 THIBAULT BENISTANT (Fra/Yam) +0:10.386

4 Kay de Wolf (Ned/Hus) +0:12.843

5 Andrea Adamo (Ita/KTM) +0:15.614

13 RICK ELZINGA (Ned/Yam) +1:14.182

Race 2

1 Simon Längenfelder (Ger/Gas)

2 JAGO GEERTS (Bel/Yam) +0:15.404

3 Andrea Adamo (Ita/KTM) +0:26.461

4 Kay de Wolf (Ned/Hus) +0:35.101

5 THIBAULT BENISTANT (Fra/Yam) +0:39.802

10 RICK ELZINGA (Ned/Yam) +1:13.635

Overall

1 Simon Längenfelder (Ger/Gas) 50

2 JAGO GEERTS (Bel/Yam) 44

3 Andrea Adamo (Ita/KTM) 36

4 Kay de Wolf (Ned/Hus) 36

5 THIBAULT BENISTANT (Fra/Yam) 36

10 RICK ELZINGA (Ned/Yam) 19

World championship classification (6/19)

1 JAGO GEERTS (Bel/Yam) 319

2 Andrea Adamo (Ita/KTM) 271

3 Kay de Wolf (Ned/Hus) 263

4 Simon Längenfelder (Ger/Gas) 259

5 THIBAULT BENISTANT (Fra/Yam) 247

11 RICK ELZINGA (Ned/Yam) 121

Images by @fullspectrummedia – Yamaha Racing