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Welcome to the Racer X's Saturday live update feed, coming to you from RedBud in Buchanan, Michigan for qualifying day at the 2022 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations. From free practice reports to the blow-by-blow from today's qualifying racing, you’ll find it all right here. Updates are posted in chronological order, so be sure to scroll down for the latest info. For even more updates be sure to follow us on Twitter, @Racerxonline.

Welcome to Saturday at the Motocross of Nations which is also qualifying day. This day is crucial for how Sunday may go for nearly every team. Each rider will get free practice today for 40 minutes starting with the MXGP free practice at 10 a.m. local time and continuing with MX2 and Open moments after that. Ultimately, the free practice means nothing for qualifying though as gates have already been selected via random drawing for today’s racing.

Some notables from yesterday’s gate pick ballot saw USA draw 15th, Netherlands fourth, Italy sixth, Australia 23rd, and France 30th. That is how each nations rider will go to the line for their respective qualifying races today.

The qualifying races will be split up but class with MXGP going first at 2 p.m. and continuing with MX2 and Open races after. Today will see not nations have their riders on the track at the exact same time and it’s a little more down to the individual to perform against their counterparts in their classes. Scores from today will be tallied by taking the two best results from each nation and throwing away the worst result to earn a score. So, if a nation goes 3-4-9 in the qualifying races, the nation will throw away that ninth and earn a score of 7. Results will be tallied then based on what each nation scores to layout the gate selections for Sunday’s racing.

Each moto today will be 20 minutes plus two laps which will mean it will have to be an all-out sprint to make up time if you get a bad start. We’ll be providing coverage all day right here, but you can also watch the broadcast via MXGPtv with the schedule provided below.

The first set of practice sessions hit the track around 10 a.m. local time. Unlike the sessions in the USA, the free practice for MXGP or in this case the MXoN, the free practice sessions are 40 minutes long and give riders ample time to come in and change setups during the session. Teams can even have a second bike on-hand for the rider to switch to with some pre-existing settings already on it.

Throughout the session, everyone took advantage of that time with Antonio Cairoli and Eli Tomac both specifically spending a little over five minutes in the pits making adjustments. Belgian Jago Geerts was on top of the board early bit he was usurped by Eli Tomac in the first half of the session.

Spaniard Jorge Prado made a few early adjustments to his bike and then headed back out to become the first rider into the 1:56s right around the halfway mark. Tomac spent much of the second half of the session working on his bike trying to go back out and run one strong lap at the end, but it would be for not.

Prado topped the session from Tomac, Jeremy Seewer, Jago Geerts, and Maxime Renaux in the top five.

Justin Cooper, Jo Shimoda, Simon Laengenfelder, Hunter Lawrence, Guillem Farres, Marvin Musquin, Kay De Wolf, Max Anstie, Andrea Adamo, and more hit the track next as the MX2 class got some free practice in.

Right from the start, Team USA’s Justin Cooper set the early pace as he had even a few seconds on the rest of the pack from his first hot lap. Hunter Lawrence lowered his time down towards Cooper at one point but then Cooper became the first rider to dip into the 1:59s.

Jo Shimoda started to come alive later in the session as well and he was able to drop down to the 2:00 mark but nobody could topple Cooper from the top spot. Cooper at a 1:59.880 was fastest ahead of Shimoda, Lawrence, Musquin, and De Wolf.

The final practice session of the morning was the Open group which featured riders like USA’s Chase Sexton, Australia’s Jett Lawrence, France’s Dylan Ferrandis, Spain’s Ruben Fernandez, and The Netherlands’ Calvin Vlaanderen.

Sexton was the man setting the early pace as he went to a low 2:00 early on. As the track continued to wear in, the times were actually slowing down compared to the first few sessions. Great Britain’s MXGP rider Dean Wilson even commented how fast the track was after his session as well.

Perhaps the surprise of the day so far was seeing Jett Lawrence jump to the top of the board in his first ever session on a 450 and at the Motocross of Nations. Lawrence was able to pip Sexton’s lap time but about three tenths of a second as he moved to the top. Sexton came in late in the session for a tire change and would go away from the paddle tire but it didn't make a difference in the time. Jett would hold on the rest of the way to end up on the top of the sheets with a 1:59.016. Sexton, Fernandez, Ferrandis, and Vlaanderen would round out the top five.

The first 20 minute plus two lap qualifying race of the day kicked off at 2:30 p.m. and it was Jorge Prado who launched out of the gate and into the first turn. The Spaniard swung a little wide in the first corner and through the inside came Switzerland’s Jeremy Seewer who snatched the holeshot and the early lead.

Before the end of the first lap, Seewer crashed in the sand rollers and slipped back to fourth. That put Mitch Evans into the lead as the Australian had his hands full with Team Belgium’s Jago Geerts. Seewer quickly shuffled around The Netherlands’ Glenn Coldenhoff to get back into third place. Behind them was Prado, France’s Maxime Renaux, and Eli Tomac in seventh.

Geerts continued to apply the pressure to Evans for the first three or so laps before finally he found a way to sneak through into the race lead. From there, Geerts would start to open up about a three or four second gap as the MX2 championship runner-up was laying claim to the field in his 450 debut.

It took a little while to get him rolling, but Eli Tomac found his flow a little bit before halfway and quickly worked around Renaux and then Prado into the top five. He then set after Coldenhoff and got him two laps later. He would then continue his march as caught Evans for third and was right on Seewer as well.

The two-lap board came out and it was Geerts, Seewer, and Tomac nearly nose to tail in a battle for the win. Seewer was defending well to keep Tomac behind, but it was not enough as Tomac slipped through into second on the last lap. Even so, Jago Geerts had enough time in hand to take the MXGP qualifying race victory ahead of Tomac, Seewer, Evans, and Prado.

The second qualifying race of the day feature the MX2 contingent as now we’d get a clearer idea where the nations were at with two scores. Off the start, it was Spain’s Guillem Farres who slipped around the outside to grab the holeshot ahead of his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Justin Cooper. Cooper gave the American crowd something to go wild about though as he quickly popped into the race lead and began to open up a gap.

Farres held onto second for a little while before Australia’s Hunter Lawrence was able to come up and get around him. Lawrence then set the fastest lap of the race but by the time he had made it into second place, Cooper was already six seconds out front.

It was a rough race for Japan’s Jo Shimoda who crashed in the third corner after a not great start anyway but then he went on to crash two more times as well. Shimoda was only able to make it back to 12th in the end, but he was riding really well when he stayed up so hopefully for his sake Japan is able to squeak into the A final.

France’s Marvin Musquin snuck into third place late after catching and passing Farres. The top four were relatively gone from the group as Netherlands’ Kay De Wolf was back in fifth place. However, de Wolf’s rear tire exploded on the last lap, and he would end up 19th. That promoted Italy’s Andrea Adamo into the top five as he just narrowly kept Germany’s Simon Laengenfelder and Belgium’s Liam Everts behind him.

Up front, it was all Justin Cooper who took his second Motocross of Nations qualifying win of his career. Cooper won the MX2 qualifying race when he was on Team USA in 2019 and has backed up that performance again here today. The result puts USA in the lead on three points going into the last qualifying race over Australia’s six points. Belgium sits third on eight points but there will still be a dropped score after the final race.

The final qualifying race of the day burst off the gate and it was the Netherlands’ Calvin Vlaanderen who shot out to the holeshot. Vlaanderen led early on and had Italy’s Mattia Guadagnini right behind him, but Guadagnini fell in the opening few turns which shuffled him way down the field.

The early mover was Chase Sexton who came from fifth off the start into second place by the end of the first lap. He then sliced up the inside of Vlaanderen for the lead through the first turn and into the lead he went.

Coming with him though was a bit of a surprise to see France’s Dylan Ferrandis. Ferrandis was questionable to even be ready for this race after he herniated some discs in his back in his contact with Justin Barcia at Budds Creek. Ferrandis explained yesterday that he was feeling 100% and apparently, he was because he started catching Sexton from second.

Sexton would go faster for a couple laps, but Ferrandis would keeping reeling him back in and got closer to him on a number of occasions. Then he made a few mistakes when he was setting up a pass and lost some ground which seemed to settle him down as well and it appeared he realized second would be okay.

Second would be okay until the very last lap of the race when Sexton tucked his front wheel and went down with just a few turns left to go. He remounted just fine but Ferrandis was still close enough to sneak by into the lead.

Ferrandis would take the final qualifying race victory of the day and a dejected Sexton would cross second. Team USA would qualify P1 though anyway as their 2-1 scores after a drop was still enough to take the top spot. France would move into second overall though with four points while Australia rounded out the podium with five points.