First GP Victory Of The Season For Jeffrey Herlings At Maggiora
Jeffrey Herlings of the Red Bull KTM team clocked his first GP victory of the season at Maggiora in Italy. Herlings finished sixth in the first heat after some problems, but won the rain-soaked second heat to claim the GP.
After some good training during the week, Herlings was raring to go. He underlined this by claiming pole position, which boosted his confidence.
A decent start gave Herlings a platform to move forward from. A stone lodged in his rear brake though which forced him to a stop. He fought hard to reclaim sixth, a decent result under the circumstances.
The rain came lashing down before the start of race 2, which changed the track completely. Herlings launched with the leading group. He soon found himself in second place, and just past mid-race, pounced and took over the lead. From then on he rode unchallenged to victory.
“The first race felt like a disaster,” Herlings said. “I did not know why the bike was braking so hard. I had to fix this, and lost about 20 seconds. I was disappointed, and really wanted to go for the win in race two. The rain suddenly started, forcing us to make a quick choice about goggles and tyres. My starts weren’t great, but at least better in the second heat. There was a little gap to Glenn, and I knew that backmarkers could play a role. I attacked at the right time, and this brought me the overall victory. We made up a good number of championship points, and it is good to carry this confidence with me to Oss. I would like to thank the Red Bull KTM team for their hard work. The bike was really perfect.
Jeffrey took the overall GP victory and reduced his deficit to the world championship leader to six points. The next race on the calendar is his home GP at Oss in two weeks’ time.
Overall MXGP Maggiora:
1 Jeffrey Herlings 40 Pnt
2 Glenn Coldenhoff 40 Pnt
3 Antonio Cairoli 40 Pnt
4 Jorge Prado 36 Pnt
5 Romain Febvre 34 Pnt
World Championship Standings MXGP:
1 Tim Gajser 124 Pnt
2 Jeffrey Herlings 118 Pnt
3 Romain Febvre 107 Pnt
4 Antonio Cairoli 105 Pnt
5 Jorge Prado 97 Pnt
