Jeffrey Herlings Pounces Late To Grab 74th Career GP Victory

Jeffrey Herlings of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team has clinched his 74th GP victory. He did so by winning two exciting heats of the British GP at Matterley Basin.

Jeffrey showed early intent by posting the fastest times in Saturday’s training sessions. He had some trouble initially in the qualifying heat and finished second after heaving passed Tim Gajser and Glenn Coldenhoff.

The first race on Sunday yielded plenty of action. Antonio Cairoli held the lead for a long time until Herlings managed to close the gap. Herlings made the pass, but Cairoli immediately struck back when Jeffrey experienced problems with a dragging front brake. With the second attempt, the riders’ trajectories intersected and Cairoli crashed, allowing Jeffrey an easy win.

“It was not my intention to make Cairoli crash,” Herlings said. “We went into the corner together and touched, and it was a pure racing incident.”

In the second race, Jeffrey waited till the very end to strike. He worked his way up to second, and slowly reeled in Cairoli. He made the pass on the last lap, and handled the pressure, ensuring the win.

” I did my very best, ” he said. ” I did not want to spend the whole race eating dust, and planned to pass near the end. This is my 100th podium and 74th GP victory, and that feels good of course.”

Herlings now has a 54 point lead over Cairoli in the world standings. The next GP is at St Jean d’Angely in France next weekend.

Overall MXGP Great Britain:
1 Jeffrey Herlings 50 Pnt
2 Antonio Cairoli 44 Pnt
3 Romain Febvre 36 Pnt
4 Clement Desalle 36 Pnt
5 Tim Gajser 36 Pnt

World Championship Standings MXGP:
1 Jeffrey Herlings 436 Pnt
2 Antonio Cairoli 382 Pnt
3 Clement Desalle 314 Pnt
4 Romain Febvre 291 Pnt
5 Gautier Paulin 267 Pnt