It was a day that he was looking forward to, he ran in the circuit of his city, the one that bears his name and in front of his countrymen. He had just led the two sleeves (training and qualifying) that were held on Saturday and everything was ready for Lugo to celebrate a motocross party with his local idol, Jorge Prado. But the GasGas did not run alone. Beside him he had Rubén Fernández, also Galician and MXGP rider, who was not going to make things easy for him, and so much so that the Honda man ended up prevailing at the Lugo native’s home.
The truth is that the two sleeves that were held on a cold Sunday in which some 2,000 fans congregated provided a technical draw between the two drivers, with Prado beating Fernández in the first and exchanging roles in the second. 47 points for the two and with the best overall time for the home team (by more than a minute difference), however, the regulations of the Spanish Championship give priority to the results of the second round in the event of a tie and that made MX Lugo fall on Rubén’s side.
Quite an achievement for the man from Vigo and even more so seeing how the morning race unfolded, in which Prado took the lead from the beginning with a home-brand start to put land in the middle and win with more than a minute advantage while José Butrón, who was leading Nacional for the second round, left after a blow and a possible femur fracture. In the second, Prado replicated a good start, but this time he could not unhook Fernández, who passed him midway through the test and then closed the door on him to certify the victory by two seconds.
A statement of intent and notice
A declaration of intent by Fernández that overcame the fall on Saturday, in which he injured his hand, in the best possible way. “It has been a good training session for the World Cup, I feel good physically, there are still some things to improve on the bike, but I am happy to be racing in Galicia in front of our fans”, he said before crowning the podium. Prado regretted losing “a lot of time with the bends” in the decisive sleeve, he appreciated the opportunity to run at home and issued a warning: “I think it’s going to be a great year, we’re going to go for the title.”
Results of the MX Lugo
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