Belgium qualified for the final of the Motocross of Nations on Sunday at Matterley Basin in England, following the three qualifying races contested on Saturday.
Joël Roelants’ Belgians took 8th place in a ranking dominated by Spain ahead of France and Australia. Roger De Coster’s United States is in 9th position.
Lucas Coenen, 2nd in MX2, achieved the best result on Saturday. Jago Geerts finished 9th in the Open category and Brent van Doninck 19th in MXGP. The two best results per country counted for the general ranking.
The first 19 qualify for the A final on Sunday. A 20th country will be designated following a repechage race (the B final with 12 countries) on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. There were 36 nations at the start.
In MX2, Lucas Coenen (Husqvarna), vice-world champion, took 2nd place behind Frenchman Tom Vialle (KTM). The German Simon Laengenfelder (GasGas) is 3rd. The world champion, the Dutchman Kay de Wolf (Husqvarna) finished 5th and the American Cooper Webb (Yamaha) 7th.
In the Open category, Jago Geerts (Yamaha) took 9th place in a race dominated by the Australian Jett Lawrence (Honda) ahead of the Spaniard Ruben Fernandez (Honda) and the French Maxime Renaux (Yamaha). The American Aaron Plessinger (KTM) is 6th.
In MXGP, Brent van Doninck (Honda) took 19th place in a race won by Spaniard Jorge Prado (GasGas), world champion. Slovenian Tim Gajser (Honda) took 2nd place ahead of Frenchman Romain Febvre (Kawasaki). The American Eli Tomac (Yamaha) had to settle for 7th place.
On Sunday, three races are on the program with two drivers per country each time, at 2:10 p.m. (MXGP and MX2), at 3:40 p.m. (MX2 and Open) and at 5:08 p.m. (Open and MXGP). The five best results are taken into account.
