Australian MX2 World Championship entrant Hunter Lawrence has matched his career-best finish of second overall last weekend at the US grand prix, marking the 17th round of the series.

Lawrence was fast all weekend long, finishing eighth in the qualification race on Saturday before lodging 3-2 moto scores on Sunday’s race day, falling just shy the moto win in his second outing.

“In the first moto I got quite a good start on my RM-Z250, inside the top 10 I’d say,” Lawrence explained. “I made some passes in the first couple of corners and got myself into fourth place just behind Mitchell Harrison where I stayed for about 10 minutes.

“RJ Hampshire and Thomas Covington were gone when I got my way into third, so I stayed there until the end. They both crashed but were still too far in front although I did close right up on both of them. In the second start I drifted a bit wide and a couple of guys passed me up the inside. I fought to make those passes back and got myself into third after passing Pauls Jonass.

“Covington was the next person I passed and after that I just got my head down, kept working and plugging away and I caught up to Hampshire in first but we just ran out of time so I couldn’t pass him for the win. I’m really happy with my second overall in my first time at an American GP – I’m just super happy with how the day went.”

The Suzuki World MX2 rider still sits ninth the MX2 World Championship standings as the series heads to Assen in The Netherlands this weekend for the penultimate stop on the calendar.