Pirelli has become FIM Motocross World Champion for the 70th time in history at the Grand Prix of Bulgaria held on Aug. 25. The Italian tire manufacturer conquered the MXGP World Title after previously obtaining the MX2 Title just one week prior at the Grand Prix of Switzerland. The MXGP and MX2 success brings the total number of World Titles to 70 since 1980, thanks to the high performance of its championship proven SCORPION MX32 tires.
The win was made possible thanks to the results of Jeffrey Herlings and Antonio Cairoli in MXGP and Jorge Prado and Pauls Jonass in MX2; all Red Bull KTM riders using Pirelli tires.
Over the last 40 years, Pirelli has won numerous titles including seven World Championships with Belgian legend Stefan Everts, six with the Italian Cairoli, nine (three each) with the Belgian riders André Malherbe, Eric Geboers and Jöel Smets and three more with British rider David Thorpe. The most recent were conquered with the Dutchman Herlings (three) and twice with the Slovenian Tim Gajser, just to name some of the athletes that over the years have decided to rely on Pirelli.
Besides the relationships with the riders, the collaborations that Pirelli has managed to establish with the motorcycle manufacturers has been crucial as well including 20 world titles were won with KTM, 16 with Yamaha and another 16 with Honda, 10 with Suzuki and three with Husaberg and two with Cagiva. In particular, from 2008 until today, Pirelli has reached 16 World Titles with KTM: six consecutive titles with Cairoli in MX1 and three with Herlings in MX2, besides the ones with Ken Roczen, Marvin Musquin, Jordi Tixier and Jonass.
From the beginning of the 2018 season, Pirelli riders have already won 53 out of 54 races (26 out of 27 in MXGP and all in MX2).
Herlings took another step towards the MXGP title in Sevlievo with a double moto victory. The Dutchman, equipped like all Pirelli’s riders with SCORPION MX 32 Mid Soft, is looking to be a solid bet for the championship thanks to a 73-point margin. Gajser, finished second behind Herlings. Cairoli is still second in the standings, finished in fourth and Romain Febvre finished in fifth place.
The MX2 class overall win went to Prado for his fifth consecutive victory in the last five races. Jonass was second despite a slip in the second moto and remains the first of Prado’s pursuers in the championship with a deficit of 30-points. Third place was won by Hunter Lawrence, who headed Thomas Olsen in fourth.
Mathys Boisrame took victory in the 10th round of the EMX250 European Championship by grabbing the European title with one race still remaining.
Link: Pirelli
