Jeffrey Herlings wins for the sixth consecutive year in Valkenswaard
Jeffrey Herlings was at his bullet-like best in front of his home crowd at the Valkenswaard circuit in the Netherlands on Sunday delivering a stunning 1-1 overall victory on a track that was gnarly and unforgiving. The Red Bull KTM Factory rider has now won on his home circuit six consecutive times and adds to his overall points lead.
It was a different story for his MXGP teammate Antonio Cairoli who went down hard in his opening moto and retired with a damaged bike. He finished eleventh in the second moto after experiencing some problems with his wrist, but he holds onto third in the overall points.
MX2
Jeffrey Herlings, a Red Bull athlete, rode a near faultless first race, and while he had to concede the holeshot to Alexandr Tonkov he was in front several corners later and had a three-second lead at the end of the first lap. He then continuously built on his advantage and crossed the line 42-seconds in front.
Aboard his KTM 250 SX-F Herlings did not get away well in his second race and was mid pack at the first corner. Meanwhile Jonass was up with the leaders and hit the front in lap three. By then Herlings was in fourth place and took over the lead several laps later. He went on to take another comfortable win by 21 seconds. Jonass stayed in contention for the first 11 laps but then dropped back to finish sixth. Herlings now has a 37-point lead after Round 5.
Herlings: “It’s good to have won here again but the sixth time it wasn’t easy. I had a pretty good start in the first moto and stayed out of trouble. But I didn’t have a good start in the second moto. I had a small crash and I had to come back from the middle of the pack. So I made it a little tough for myself. But I worked my way up to front and won, so that was good.”
Results Grand Prix MX2 in Valkenswaard
First moto:
1 Jeffrey Herlings
2 Max Anstie
3 Jordi Tixier
4 Dylan Ferrandis
5 Aleksandr Tonkov
Second moto:
1 Jeffrey Herlings
2 Aleksandr Tonkov
3 Jordi Tixier
4 Valentin Guillod
5 Brian Bogers
Overall MX2:
1 Jeffrey Herlings 50 Pnt
2 Jordi Tixier 40 Pnt
3 Aleksandr Tonkov 38 Pnt
4 Brian Bogers 31 Pnt
5 Valentin Guillod 28 Pnt
World Championship Standings MX2:
1 Jeffrey Herlings 222 Pnt
2 Dylan Ferrandis 185 Pnt
3 Pauls Jonass 148 Pnt
4 Tim Gajser 137 Pnt
5 Aleksandr Tonkov 133 Pnt