At Round 4 of the EMX250 Championship at Riola Sardo, Sardinia, Hutten Metaal Yamaha Racing ended its weekend with huge success as its riders Andrea Bonacorsi and Rick Elzinga finished 1-2 on the podium.
In the first race of the EMX250 class, we saw WZ Racing Team’s Mike Gwerder leading the way with Hutten Metaal Yamaha Racing’s Rick Elzinga right behind. Fantic Factory Team Maddii’s Cas Valk, who was making an appearance in the 250cc class, also started well in third, ahead of Hutten Metaal Yamaha Racing’s Dave Kooiker and Fantic Factory Team Maddii’s Cornelius Toendel.
At the end of the first lap, Elzinga took the lead, as Kooiker also passed by Gwerder when he was in second. Gwerder continued to lose positions, dropping to fifth place, while Kooiker set the fastest lap of the race and was right on the heels of teammate Elzinga.
Meico Vettik had an off-track excursion as he crashed and did not finish the race. On lap five there was a change for the lead as Kooiker was able to find a way around Elzinga, while Jumbo Husqvarna BT Racing Team’s Lucas Coenen passed Quentin Marc Prugnieres for fifth and continued his charge towards the ‘before.
Kooiker looked strong in the sandy conditions as he pulled away 2.543 seconds from Elzinga who was working hard not to lose her grip on the leader.
Coenen then passed Valk on lap eight and then two laps later found himself third and didn’t finish there as he put in some good laps to close in on the two guys on top.
With three laps to go, Elzinga was able to bounce back and get maximum points by passing Kooiker, then out of nowhere came teammate Andrea Bonacorsi who, in the closing stages, passed for fourth and then got Coenen for the third and in the last lap as well. passed Kooiker for second place.
In the end, Elzinga secured the victory, Bonacorsi crossed the line second ahead of Kooiker, Coenen and Prugnières.
In race two, Gwerder again got off to a good start ahead of Sahkar Racing’s Coenen, Bonacorsi, Elzinga and Jorgen Mathias Talviku. Although at the start of the first lap, Coenen took the lead as Bonacorsi also made a move on Gwerder.
Championship leader Toendel started in about 10and while Gwerder lost another position to Elzinga who was accused. The Swiss continued to drop the rankings until they finished in eighth position. But Bonacorsi was on a charge as he clung to Coenen’s rear wheel and on lap 10 managed to make a pass to take the lead. Elzinga also started winning over the Belgian as Coenen tried his best to stay ahead, although a few mistakes slipped in which cost him valuable time.
In the end, Bonacorsi won the race ahead of Coenen who managed to keep Elzinga at bay, while Toendel came back fourth ahead of Valk.
With a 2-1 result, Bonacorsi was declared the overall winner with his first round victory in the EMX250 class. Joining him on the second step of the podium was his teammate Elzinga, who fought back some important championship points and with Coenen third on the box.
Despite not making the podium, Toendel continues to lead the EMX250 Championship standings by a slim four point margin over Elzinga, with Fantic Factory Team Maddii’s Haakon Osterhagen third. The next round of the EMX250 will head to the mythical Ernèe circuit for the Monster Energy MXGP of France on the 4thand and 5and of June.
Andrea Bonacorsi: “Finally, first overall. And finally, back on my pace, you just have to work to go more and more like that. The first race wasn’t the best start but then I knew the race was long and hot with big bumps but I went all the way and started pushing harder to finish second. In the second race, I started in the top three, then I took the lead and held the pace until the end”.
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