Red Bull KTM Factory riders launched their pre-season in style this weekend at the opening round of the Italian International MX Championship at Riola Sardo with Tony Cairoli taking an impressive win in the Elite Class race and picking up second place in MX1.

Equally impressive was the dominant MX2 win by the team’s new signing Pauls Jonass of Latvia, who was also the fastest MX2 rider in the combined Elite Class race.

Cairoli’s two factory teammates for the MXGP season, Belgian Ken de Dycker and Tommy Searle of Britain were also racing on the technical sand track of Riola Sardo and finished 6-7 in the MX1 race. Searle fared better in the combined Elite class where he picked up a podium third. In his second race De Dycker got caught up behind a pileup of riders in the opening stages of the Elite race and finished back at twelvth.

Cairoli’s day started well when he worked his way up from a fifth out of the gate in the MX1 race to finally engage in a battle with Gautier Paulin for line honors. The Italian, who was enthusiastically supported by many of his home fans did run out of time to catch the French rider and cross the line in second. He went out hard and fast in the Elite race and delivered a spectacular race where he had claimed an 11-second lead in the opening four laps. He stayed out in front and right through the race accrued more and more advantage on the other riders, eventually crossing the line almost 26 seconds ahead of Paulin.

Searle, like Cairoli, is racing on the KTM 350 SX-F made an impressive charge from a seventh place start in the Elite Race to be in third at the close of lap 11. He held to position right to the flag.

Tony Cairoli: “This is the kind of track that is always very technical and its great to race here in the pre-season races. I had a good first race to finish second. For sure there is still some work to do but that’s normal for the first race of the season. I feel good with the bike but I still feel a bit from my small injury at the Motocross of Nations. It’s not one hundred percent but I feel good and I try to build up some muscle to make the leg a bit stronger to be ready for Qatar. That’s our goal.”

Pauls Jonass: “It wasn’t so bad to be the first MX2 guy but I am not really satisfied with my riding. I know I can do much better, also in the Elite class race we made some changes to the suspension and it wasn’t as good as I would have liked.” Jonass said he was looking forward to the next round next weekend on the hard pack surface of Castiglione del Lago. “I like the track there. It s is very technical and there are some hills it will be good for this new KTM bike and I will do my best to be the top MX2 guy again.”

For Ken de Dycker it was a welcome return to the track after a spate of injuries kept him out of racing for almost all of 2014. “I had two good races and I had a good feeling but in the second race they crashed in front of me and I had nowhere to go. The good thing is that all the hand injury is okay and I have no pain.”

Riders contest the second round of the three-round Italian championship next weekend at Castiglione del Lago. The opening round of the MXGP season is at the Losail Circuit in Qatar in the final weekend in February

Elite Class Race (MX1 + MX2)

1, Tony Cairoli, ITA, KTM, 30:53.330
2, Gautier Paulin, FRA, Honda, 31:19.157
3, Tommy Searle, GBR, KTM, 31:33.198
4, Jose Butron, ESP, KTM, 31:34.372
5, Roman Febvre, FRA, Yamaha, 31:39.934
6, Max Nagl, GER, Husqvarna, 31:46.292
(Top 6 all MX1)

7, Pauls Jonass, LAT, KTM 31:56.908 (MX2)
8, Dean Ferris, AUS, Husqvarna, 31:57.720 (MX1)
9, Alexandr Tonkov, RUS, Husqvarna 31:58.542 (MX2)

Points Elite Class after Rd. 1

1, Cairoli, 120
2, Paulin, 100
3, Searle, 80
4, Butron, 65
5, Febvre, 60
6, Nagl, 55
7, Jonass, 50
12, Ken de Dycker, BEL, KTM 32

MX1 Race

1, Paulin Honda 30:30.172
2, Cairoli, KTM 30:31.291
3, Van Horebeek, Yamaha, 30:38.757
4, Nagl, Husqvarna, 30:52.551
5, Febvre, Yamaha, 31:15.915
6, De Dycker, KTM, 30:31.682
7, Searle, KTM 31:35.329
8, Butron, KTM 31:35.329

MX1 Points after Rd. 1

1, Paulin 120
2, Cairoli, KTM 100
3, Van Horebeek, 80
4, Nagl, 65
5, Febvre, 60
6, De Dycker, KTM, 55
7, Searle, KTM, 50
8, Butron, KTM, 45

MX2 Race

1, Jonass, KTM 30:44.567
2, Seewer, Suzuki, 31:12.58
3, Vsevalad Brylyakov, Honda, 31:29.37
4, Gaijser, Honda, 31:30.271
5, Tonkov, Husqvarna, 32:21.256
6, Pootjes, KTM 32.26.997
7, Ivan Barankov, KTM 32:29.895

MX2 Points after Rd. 1

1, Jonass, KTM 120
2, Seewer, 100
3, Brylyakov, 80
4, Gaijser, 65
5, Tonkov, 60
6, Pootjes, 55

Next Round: February 8 at Castiglione Del Lago