Herlings Unbeatable in Spain, Forges Ahead in MX2 Points
OutdoorHub 05.12.14
Dutch teenager, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings was a force to be reckoned with on the Spanish circuit of Talavera de la Reina on Sunday when he took a double race win to seal his thirty-seventh career GP victory.
Teammate Antonio Cairoli put two hard fought MXGP motos for fourth overall and he and Herlings continue to hold the red plates as leaders in their respective championships.
It was a welcome return to Spain for the World Championship after several years’ absence from the calendar and it was the first time in 12 years since the circuit in central Spain had hosted a round. The track, a mix of soft sand and hard clay proved to be challenging for many riders, especially in the early stages of the races where it was sticky in the corners after heavy watering.
MX2
Saturday’s qualifying was tricky for Herlings, where he crashed several times and bent his handlebars. This left him the task of fighting back from sixteenth on the starting grid in Sunday’s races but he got things underway with his usual flair in the opening MX2 moto with a clear victory. He found himself back at eighth place at the start of the second moto but charged past leader Jose Butron with eight minutes and two laps to go to pick up his second win of the day.
Jeffrey Herlings: “I surprised myself with a good start in race one when I saw I was out in front at the second turn. That really made life easy and it was really cool so I enjoyed it. I didn’t have such a good start in the second race. I was in eighth place but I worked my way to the front to win both motos and add another 50 points.”
Jeffrey, who competes on the KTM 250 SX-F has a 27-point lead over second placed Arnaud Tonus in the championship, an impressive total considering he missed the GP of Brazil through Injury.
Factory teammate Jordi Tixier finished with a 4-9 result for overall fifth and is fifth in the points but the French rider came a way disappointed from the Spanish races. “My qualifying was good yesterday and I had a good feeling for the track. I didn’t have a good start in the first moto but I came back to fourth after a small crash in the first three laps.”
Tixier missed the start in the second moto and another crash put him back at ninth after he ran his KTM 250 SX-F too high and buried the front end into the berm. “ I lost some points in the championship so from now on I don’t need to make any mistakes. I need to take a good start and make a podium every weekend.”
MXGP
MXGP points leader Cairoli was disappointed with the outcome of his races on Sunday, especially since he had claimed a very decisive, almost 16 second win in Saturday’s qualifying. Race day however proved more difficult, especially as he didn’t get away well at the start on the heavily watered track. Both races were hard fought but went to Cairoli’s rival, Belgian rival Clement Desalle.
Antonio Cairoli: “I didn’t have the best of starts and I had to work a lot, especially in the first race, to make the passes, which are not easy on this track. There was a lot of water on the track and you had to be really aggressive to pass and that’s not really my style. I invented some strange lines in the second moto and whe I got up to second I pushed a lot to try to pass Desalle, but he was riding very good and I couldn’t make the pass.”
Cairoli’s teammate Ken de Dycker, who returned to racing in the last round at Valkenswaard after a very long injury pause, is still short on fitness and race practice. Still troubled with a finger injury that makes gripping difficult, he finished in nineteenth in the first race and then retired in the second race after what he said was possibly a stone lodged in the rear brake.
The next round of the competition is the British GP in Matterley Basin on May 25, 2014
More at www.mxgp.com.
MXGP of Spain at Talavera de la Reina – Round 7
MXGP Results
1, Clement Desalle, BEL, Suzuki, (1 – 1)
2, Jeremy van Horebeek, BEL, Yamaha, (2 – 4)
3, Kevin Strijbos, BEL, Suzuki, (4 – 3)
4, Tony Cairoli, ITA, KTM, (6 – 2)
5, Steven Frossard, FRA, Kawasaki, (3 – 5)
Other KTM
9, Jake Nicholls, GBR, KTM, (13 – 6)
13, Shaun Simpson, GBR, KTM, (10 – 13)
16, Dennis Ullrich, GER, KTM, (16 – 17)
17, Matiss Karro, LAT, KTM, (14 – 23)
22, Ken de Dycker, BEL, KTM, (19 – 21)
MXGP Standings after Rd. 7
1, Cairoli, 304
2, Desalle, 280
3, Van Horebeek, 276
4, Strijbos, 220
5, Paulin, 205
Other KTM
11, Simpson, 132
16, Nicholls, 92
18, Karro, 75
…
34, de Dycker, 2
MXGP Manufacturers Standings after Rd. 7
1, KTM, 304
2, Suzuki, 290
3, Yamaha, 276
MX2 Results
1, Jeffrey Herlings, NED, KTM, (1 – 1)
2, Dylan Ferrandis, FRA, Kawasaki, (3 – 3)
3, Arnaud Tonus, SUI, Kawasaki, (2 – 5)
4, Romain Febvre, FRA, Husqvarna, (5 – 4)
5, Jordi Tixier, FRA, KTM, (4 – 9)
Other KTM
6, Jose Butron, ESP, KTM, (8 – 6)
11, Ivo Monticelli, ITA, KTM, (13 – 12)
12, Valentin Guillod, SUI, KTM, (25 – 7)
13, Damon Graulus, BEL, KTM, (7 – 22)
16, Harri Kullas, FIN, KTM, (15 – 17)
18, Mel Pocock, GBR, KTM, (14 – 19)
MX2 Standings after Rd. 7
1, Herlings, 294
2, Tonus, 267
3, Febvre, 232
4, Ferrandis, 225
5, Tixier, 215
Other KTM
9, Butron, 159
10, Guillod, 153
18, Pocock, 55
MX2 Manufacturers Standings after Rd. 7
1, KTM, 324
2, Kawasaki, 293
3, Husqvarna, 238
MX European Championship at Talavera de la Reina in Spain, Round 2
EMX250 Results
1, Sullivan Jaulin, FRA, Kawasaki, (2 – 1)
2, Steven Clarke, GBR, KTM, (1 – 2)
3, Adam Sterry, GBR, KTM, (7 – 5)
4, Brian Bogers, NED, KTM, (4 – 10)
5, Michele Cervellin, ITA, Honda, (8 – 7)
EMX250 Standings after Round 2
1, Clarke, 83
2, Watson 63
3, Zaragoza, 59
4, Cervellin, 55
5, Bogers, 51
EMX250 Manufacturers Standings after Round 2
1, KTM, 92
2, Kawasaki, 84
3, Honda, 74
