Swiss local Jeremy Seewer delivered a sensational third overall in front of a home crowd at Frauenfeld. Just 30km from his hometown of Bülach, the 30-year-old Seewer put on a heroic performance in tricky conditions. After qualifying sixth on Saturday, he fought hard in race one to secure seventh despite dropping back from a strong start. Teammate Alessandro Lupino salvaged 19th after a tough opening moto, overcoming setup issues and a poor start.

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Race two saw drama early, with Seewer charging into turn one in the lead, only to be pushed wide and hit by a flying rock, temporarily numbing his leg and dropping him to eighth. Meanwhile, Lupino was caught in a first-turn pileup and had to restart from the rear of the field.

Undeterred, Seewer launched an incredible comeback, carving through the pack and staging a last-lap pass for third, sealing Ducati’s first MXGP podium in only their sixth Grand Prix appearance. “Ducati’s first podium is huge!” Seewer said. “We started from zero and worked so hard. To achieve this here at home in front of my fans, it’s just the best day of my life!”

Lupino also showed grit, climbing to 15th in the second moto and earning valuable championship points. The Italian will return to the Italian Prestige MX2 Championship next weekend aboard the Desmo250 MX. Seewer now sits ninth in the MXGP standings heading into the next round in Agueda, Portugal. “This weekend was positive,” said Lupino. “I only had one day on the bike before racing and struggled at first, but I found good speed. The results don’t show our true potential, but I’m happy with the progress.”

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In the first round of the Italian MX1 Championship, held on the International Circuit of Mantua, the eight-time Italian Champion, after having set the best benchmark both in free practice and in qualifying, led the opening heat from the first to the last lap. In the second heat, after a difficult start, Lupino finished seventh after a great comeback, sealing the second overall place in the round.

Claudio Domenicali, CEO of Ducati Motor Holding: “This weekend in Mantua we wrote another chapter in the history of Ducati. Alessandro Lupino and our team gave us some great fun and, despite it being the first motocross race in our recent history, we immediately demonstrated outstanding performance. Best time in free practice, pole and victory in the first heat are truly a debut that lives up to expectations: we have gathered a lot of information which will be fundamental to best develop the bike that will be available to all enthusiasts next year. Congratulations to Alessandro and our entire off-road team, a fantastic start to a new story of sport and passion.”

Alessandro Lupino, official rider of the Ducati Corse R&D – Factory MX Team: “These were two very exciting days, my debut with the Ducati was truly a dream: they told me it would be, but today I experienced it! Feeling like a Ducatista is a truly special sensation. Congratulations to all the guys who worked on this project, because in a very short time they created a spectacular bike, with a lot of potential, doing an incredible job. Together we wrote a page of history: first pole and first heat victory for the Ducati Desmo450 MX. Unfortunately, the second heat didn’t go as I would have liked: I got the start wrong and wasn’t able to recover. But that’s okay, now the engineers have the data to analyse two completely different situations!”

Sunday’s two heats allowed Ducati engineers to collect the first important data to continue the development of the Desmo450 MX which, upon its debut, has confirmed the validity of the technical base of the prototype. The focus of the Ducati Off-Road project is a combination of the search for lightness pushed to the extreme, top-of-the-line components and engines characterised by a very broad delivery curve. The latter is obtained thanks to the utilisation of the Desmodromic system, used on all the sports bikes of the Borgo Panigale company starting from MotoGP. Ducati is in fact the only company in the world that uses the same valve return system on its highest performing production motorcycles as it uses on racing prototypes.

The next round of the Italian Motocross Championship is scheduled for 27 and 28 April on the Cingoli (MC) circuit. In the meantime, the tests of the Ducati Corse R&D – Factory MX Team will continue together with Alessandro Lupino and Tony Cairoli, present in Mantua to support the eight-time Italian Motocross Champion.

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