GP win for Jeffrey Herlings at challenging Teutschenthal circuit
Jeffrey Herlings, clearly suffering from a dose of flu and accompanying fever, was slower than usual out of the gates in his opening race. He put in a handful of laps at fifth and fourth position before advancing to second. He hit the front in the seventh lap after making the pass on early leader Dylan Ferrandis.
The Dutch rider then broke away on his KTM 250 SX-F, and while it was not with his usual velocity, he still finished to complete the opening moto almost 15 seconds in front. He remarked immediately after the race that he expected the second race to be much harder, as his illness was sapping his strength.
Herlings also has some problems at the start of the second race and in the process he hurt his ankle, which he said later was very painful. This incident made his ride all the more impressive because he still managed to salvage the win in the last lap of the race. He was fifth at the start after the incident with his ankle and sat out more than half the race between 4th an 5th before engaging in a serious battle with Jeremy Seewer. The two had advanced up to the front of the pack but it was still Seewer who had the edge going into the last lap. Herlings finally managed to make the pass stick and went on to secure the win.
Herlings: “My ankle hurts pretty bad but we have to make the best of it and now I have 5-6 day to recover. It has been a bad weekend also because I was sick but I managed to keep my winning streak going and that’s really positive.” When asked about his ankle injury Herlings said: “A rider cut me off and I sort of lost my balance and landed on my ankle. That was not so nice, but I guess that’s racing.”
Results:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED), KTM (1-1)
2. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA), Kawasaki (2-3)
3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI), Suzuki (4-2)
4. Max Anstie (GBR), Husqvarna (3-5)
5. Benoit Paturel (FRA), Yamaha (7-4)
Standings MX2 2016 after 7 of 18 rounds
1. Herlings, 350 points
2. Seewer, 270
3. Jonass, 218
4. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS), Yamaha, 186
5. Paturel, 186
