Intro:

Italy's Tony Cairoli wins the Motocross Grand Prix of Belgium in Lommel on Sunday (3rd August) and closes in on a sixth successive world championship.

Script:

Round 15 of the FIM Motocross World Championship took place at Lommel in Belgium.

Italy's Tony Cairoli was looking to maintain his lead in the standings and close in on a sixth successive MX1 world title.

Race one saw Germany's Maximilian Nagl get away quickly, but by lap three the Honda rider had been overhauled by Cairoli and Kevin Strijbos.

Cairoli's closest rival for the title, Jeremy Van Horebeek, was struggling and was passed by Frenchman Gautier Paulin

Paulin overtyook Strijbos to move into second place, but he couldn't get past Cairoli, who moved clear to take the win.

Paulin had to settle for second place, with Briton Shaun Simpson third, ahead of another Belgian, Ken de Dycker.

In race two, Cairoli worked his way to the front by the end of the second lap and charged away from the field.

Behind him, Steven Frossard of France had a solid first half of the race before dropping back and Latvia's Matiss Karro crashed out in spectacular style on the 'wave' section of the course.

Van Horebeek had another disappointing outing.

The last third of the race played out under a freak storm - rain and hail lashed the track as thunder and lightning filled the skies.

The harsh conditions didn't seem to worry Cairoli although he did have to discard his goggles with a lap to go.

The Italian soon took the chequered flag to win his second race of the day, his sixth 'double' of the season and 72nd race victory of his career.

Belgium's Ken de Dycker was second, ahead of Simpson and Paulin.

The win means Cairoli extends his lead over Van Horebeek to 81 points with two rounds of the season to come.