Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Tony Cairoli came away from round three of the Italian international MX Championship on Sunday with the Elite title in his hands. But a brush on the first corner of the MX1 race ended with a DNF that knocked him down to second place in the MX1 category.
Cairoli had been the overall top performer in the two earlier rounds, easily winning both the MX1 and Elite Class races and went into the final round at Montevachi with a perfect scorecard. But an incident in the first corner of the MX1 race saw KTM’s multi MX1 world champion make contact with Steven Frossard and he had to pull out of the race.
Cairoli made a great comeback in the Elite race later in the afternoon despite getting a painful knock on his ankle in the earlier crash. Starting right at the back of the field at in 14th – he went on the charge – moving up to seventh place in the two opening laps. The popular Italian then got stuck in traffic mid-race but eventually managed to move up to fourth at the chequers.
He finished behind former team-mate Jeremy van Horebeek in the MX1 class rankings but was the clear winner in the Elite category.
Red Bull KTM’s Jordi Tixier did not compete in the third round, having been on the list to race at the International in Valence, France, which was cancelled due to bad weather.
The French rider still had enough accrued points to take a podium third in the MX2 class, while Paul Jonass of Latvia and Italian Ivo Monticelli from Marchetti Racing Team KTM took 4-5 in the MX2 championship.
