Dunc’em! Courtney sweeps to first 2018 WMX Grand Prix win

WMX continues to thrill. Three of the last five editions of the series have involved last-round-last-race deciders with a season of effort, sweat and risk coming down to a few mere points. Duncan has to face five-times No.1 Kiara Fontanesi as well as Nancy Van der Ven and ‘veteran’ Larissa Papenmeier.

“The track was challenging in both motos and they were both very different: one was rutty and technical and the second was like a mud-fest…so it was good to get out of there with 25 points today,” No.151 said. “A 1-1 was more than I could have asked for. We’re happy and we’ll look to Germany.”

The ladies now have gap of almost a month until the Grand Prix of Germany brings them together for round three of six. Elsewhere in Portugal and Monster Energy Yamaha’s Romain Febvre just missed the MXGP podium with fourth place overall while Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Clement Desalle was frustrated with a first race ‘DNF’ after a technical problem with his racebike ruined another strong podium bid; the Belgian showing his strong current form by classifying third in the second outing. An exciting finale in the MX2 class saw Kemea Yamaha’s Ben Watson missing out on a maiden trophy by just 0.1 of a second at the line: the young Brit continues to impress in his first term on the YZ250F.