Latvian motor sportsman Paul Jonas won the fifth round of the World Motocross Championship – the Portuguese Grand Prix – in the most prestigious MXGP class on Sunday, celebrating the first success of his career at the highest level. Jonas finished second in both races.
In the rainy first race on the muddy and clayey track, the Standing Construct Honda rider Jonas established himself in fifth position on the first lap, but after the fall of Spain's Jorge Prado, he moved up to fourth place.
About ten minutes before the end of the race, the Dutchman Geoffrey Herlings, who was in the lead from the first lap, but was second at the time of the stoppage, retired from the race. Jonas moved up one more position and overtook the fallen Frenchman Romain Favre in the final lap, the Latvian losing only to Tim Gajser from Slovenia.
During the second race, it did not rain on the track and after the start, Jonas was behind only the Dutchman Geoffrey Herlings. Both Gajser and Prado crashed early in the race, both dropping out of the race for top position.
Herlings established himself in first position, Favre in third position started to close in on Jonas at the end of the race, but he too made a mistake and stopped on the hill. Norwegian Cornelius Tendel finished third behind Jonas.
In the previous season, the Spanish Jorge Prado won the overall standings, leaving behind the Frenchman Romain Fevre and the Swiss Jeremy Siever, but Jonas finished 19th with several injuries.