Lawrence and Beaton Shine in French GP

After total domination in the MX2 qualifier at the French FIM World Championship round Australian Team Suzuki rider Hunter Lawrence carried his good form into both of the final motos to finish 4-1 to take second overall behind Rockstar Energy Husqvarana’s Thomas Covington, 1-2, while fellow countryman Jed Beaton (filling in on the official HRC factory Honda) had his best result so far taking the final podium position thanks to 3-4 results.

In atrocious conditions, the young Aussie’s shined in a race full of drama, but all eyes were on Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pauls Jonass, who was looking to wrap up his first MX2 world championship in the first race. He went down on the opening lap, but eventually slid his way back through the field to finish fifth, which was enough to clinch the title.

On his first world championship win, Jonass stated, “It has been my dream since I started riding to be a world champion, it was a special moment when I accomplished that after the first race actually. I made it pretty tough for myself crashing in the second corner of the first race and then I got up, cleaned everything, then crashed again in the next corner. I started from dead last and finished fifth which was enough for the championship and I was really happy about that.”

Hunter Lawrence took his first career race win and second overall, capping off a solid season for the young rookie, saying afterwards, “It was good to get the first pole position yesterday because normally my Saturdays are terrible so it was good to get that monkey off my back. I made some passes (in race 1) and then backed up my pole position result with a win in race 2.”

Jed Beaton took his first career podium while filling in on the HRC bike. Beaton has made the most of his opportunity riding the factory Honda CRF250R and is happy to finish the season on a high, stating, “I’m just thankful to be able to fill in and have the opportunity to race MX2. I got a bit lucky with Jeremy Seewer crashing on the last lap to get on the podium, but I’m all in all happy with this weekend and how my season went.”

MX2 – Results

1. Covington, Thomas USA
2. Lawrence, Hunter AUS
3. Beaton, Jed AUS
4. Seewer, Jeremy SUI
5. Jonass, Pauls LAT
6. Olsen, Thomas Kjer DEN
7. Bogers, Brian NED
8. Prado Garcia, Jorge ESP
9. Sanayei, Darian USA
10. Östlund, Alvin SWE