Herlings Wins MX2

FIM World MX Champs

maddix park mx

Second overall was moto one winner Dylan Ferrandis with 1-6 and Romain Febvre was third. A big surprise was the showing by young American Thomas Covington who scored a third place finish in the second moto in his pro-debut.

Herlings did lose the opening moto of the season in the MX2 class after a terrible  start and struggling to come through the field. French rider Dylan Ferrandis took a very close victory that went down to the very last corner of the opening MX2 moto.

The opening MX2 moto saw Ferrandis take a quick lead, although further back Tonus went down and Herlings nearly went down. Up front Butron took the lead from Ferrandis, with Leiber third, then Anstie, Tixier, Tonkov, Coldenhoff, Pocock, Gajser, Petrov, Seewer, Guillod, Herlings, Desprey and Febvre in 15th place. American Thomas Covington was out of the race on lap two.

Anstie made quick work of Ferrandis and Lieber and moved into second place. Anstie riding for the Bike It Yamaha team was putting a lot of pressure on Butron for the lead. On lap two Anstie took the lead, while Herlings moved up to 12th place.

Petrov dropped back to last and Tonus trying to recover from his opening lap crash was in 22ndplace. Anstie quickly got away from Butron and was looking brilliant. Another amazing performance from the Steve Dixon team.

Mel Pocock was riding well and despite being sick held sixth position after three laps, although Tonkov and Febvre were pressing him. After four laps Herlings was ninth, and Tonus was up to 18th place.

Anstie had extended his lead to five seconds over Butron, who was two seconds clear of Ferrandis. Ferrandis though found some speed and on lap seven passed Butron for second, Coldenhoff held fourth, followed by Tonkov, Febvre, Pocock, Herlings, Tixier and Guillod.

Coldenhoff was now putting pressure on Butron and Herlings wasn’t making that much ground on the two Husqvarna riders (Tonkov and Febvre). Pocock dropped to 11th, and Tonus remained in 15th place.

Anstie had held nearly seven seconds over Ferrandis, who was getting hurry up from both Butron and Coldenhoff, but now Ansties lead was suddenly five seconds. Herling who had passed Febvre was up to sixth place and 16 seconds back from Anstie.

After 13 laps Herlings got some extra speed and passed Tonkov and was onto the back wheel of Butron for fourth place. Ansties suddenly went missing as Ferrandis took the lead with Coldenhoff just a second behind and Herlings six seconds back in third place.

Amazingly on lap 15 Coldenhoff and Herlings were both on the back wheel of Ferrandis and the battle for the moto victory was now serious. The top three battled shoulder to shoulder as Herlings looked for a way past the two riders ahead of him.

Ferrandis got the victory with Herlings half a bike length back, third Coldenhoff a close third.

Butron led the second MX2 moto, then came Anstie, Covington, Tonkov, Tixier, Ferrandis, Gajser, Tonus, Pocock and Seewer in 10th. Herling was back in 15th place and Coldenhoff in 16th.

After one lap it was Anstie, Butron, Covington, Tonkov, Ferrandis, Lieber, Herlings, Charlier, Febvre, and Tixier drops to 10th.

After six laps Anstie still led, but young American Covington was riding the race of his short career in second place and closing on the British rider. Herlings was still struggling in sixth place, while just ahead Ferrandis held the overall for the GP.

Ferrandis and Herlings continued their climb through the field, holding down third and fourth behind Anstie and Herlings. On lap 10 Herlings passed Ferrandis for third place and the GP overall lead.

After passing Ferrandis the cool Dutchman quickly caught and passed Covington and set out after Anstie, although the British riders bike stopped again as he led the moto. That gave Herlings the lead although young Covington wasn’t about to let the quickest MX2 rider in the World get away without a fight and tried to stay with the leader.

Further back Tonus moved into third, followed by Febvre, Tonkov, Ferrandis, Butron, Tixier, Charlier and Lieber in 10th.  Tonus was on the gas and quickly caught up to Covington, who wasn’t that far behind Herlings.

Tonus passed Covington and was on the back wheel of Herlings. Covington who rode an amazing moto was back in third place. The final order Herlings, Tonus, Covington, Febvre, Tonkov, Ferrandis, Tixier, Butron, Charlier and Gajser in 10th.

 MX2 – Grand Prix Race 1 – Classification

1 122 Ferrandis, Dylan FRA FFM Kawasaki 33:53.328
2 84 Herlings, Jeffrey NED KNMV KTM 33:53.657
3 259 Coldenhoff, Glenn NED KNMV Suzuki 33:55.537
4 17 Butron, Jose ESP RFME KTM 34:06.897
5 461 Febvre, Romain FRA FFM Husqvarna 34:07.210
6 59 Tonkov, Aleksandr RUS MFR Husqvarna 34:14.419
7 911 Tixier, Jordi FRA FFM KTM 34:20.233
8 243 Gajser, Tim SLO AMZS Honda 34:23.521
9 92 Guillod, Valentin SUI FMS KTM 34:25.557
10 200 Tonus, Arnaud SUI FMS Kawasaki 34:30.155

Best lap: #84 Jeffrey Herlings Time:1:51.285 in lap 15

MX2 – Grand Prix Race 2 – Classification

1 84 Herlings, Jeffrey NED KNMV KTM 33:49.169
2 200 Tonus, Arnaud SUI FMS Kawasaki 33:50.373
3 64 Covington, Thomas USA AMA Kawasaki 33:56.815
4 461 Febvre, Romain FRA FFM Husqvarna 33:58.852
5 59 Tonkov, Aleksandr RUS MFR Husqvarna 33:59.606
6 122 Ferrandis, Dylan FRA FFM Kawasaki 34:01.440
7 911 Tixier, Jordi FRA FFM KTM 34:01.622
8 17 Butron, Jose ESP RFME KTM 34:02.909
9 23 Charlier, Christophe FRA FFM Yamaha 34:03.908
10 243 Gajser, Tim SLO AMZS Honda 34:04.695

MX2 – GP Classification

1 84 Herlings, Jeffrey NED KNMV KTM 22 25 47
2 122 Ferrandis, Dylan FRA FFM KAW 25 15 40
3 461 Febvre, Romain FRA FFM HUS 16 18 34
4 200 Tonus, Arnaud SUI FMS KAW 11 22 33
5 59 Tonkov, Aleksandr RUS MFR HUS 15 16 31
6 17 Butron, Jose ESP RFME KTM 18 13 31
7 259 Coldenhoff, Glenn NED KNMV SUZ 20 9 29
8 911 Tixier, Jordi FRA FFM KTM 14 14 28
9 243 Gajser, Tim SLO AMZS HON 13 11 24
10 23 Charlier, Christophe FRA FFM YAM 9 12 21

Rider Comments:

Fence_MXGP_1_QAT_2014

The Grand Prix of Qatar was an impressive event, with a lot of good racing around a very tricky circuit. Here is what some of the riders thought of the evening. More comments later.

Gautier Paulin: “This is great way to start the season and this is a result of the hard work that the Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing team has put in over the Winter. I was not so happy with the first moto and I had to change my style and some settings of the bike for the second moto. The changes were a step in the right direction and I was able to ride how I like and I controlled the race from the lead. Our goal was to come away with the red plate and we achieved this. Moving on to Thailand next week, I enjoyed the track last year but I will approach the race just like any other GP and focus on the race day and the track conditions then, as it could change from last year.”

Max Nagl: The last win was a long time ago for myself so to win the first race today makes me really happy. I got a good start and managed to get out front. Up until the last lap I wasn’t that tired, just maintaining my pace, but then I had to really push at the end when Toni was behind me as I knew he’d be giving it everything he’s got. I’m just so pleased for Roger, my chief mechanic, and the whole team for this win, and it was the perfect way to start the season. I was happy all weekend with my riding, and the bike was always working perfectly. Every session we made some small changes to setup and we always could improve it a little bit and that’s the best way to work. It’s important to start the season this way, not like last year, and to be taking points.

Evgeny Bobryshev: Really I was fighting twice today – once with the race itself, and also with my ankle injury. I have the speed and everything but I could not handle the track and the slippery ground. There were many right handers and I couldn’t use my injured leg properly. In the second race I twisted it twice again, and I had a big battle at the start of the race and a few times my ankle was hit which caused me so much pain. I had to continue so I squeezed my teeth and finished. The season is long, but at the moment it’s really tough.

Jeremy Van Horebeek: “Really solid today and I’m happy with the Grand Prix. I missed the starts this weekend. I had almost the same speed as the four guys in front of me but to go faster on this track was almost impossible. The bike is really awesome with how we set it up and it’s great for the rest of the season. The first one is done and I know where I am, which is near the front. Just a little bit more work to do on the starts and the podium is not far away.”

David Philippaerts: 2014 YZ450F “It was difficult. Very hard. The track was strange. Some parts were very slippery and others had a lot of traction and in the second moto there were a lot of small bumps. I was not riding that well tonight. I need to work more with the suspension because we did not have the best set-up. We pushed hard to be here and the result didn’t come but we have seventeen more rounds ahead and to get near the front.”

Todd Waters: “It’s been a rough start to my MXGP career. I had a massive crash during qualification and was lucky not to get injured. Coming through the wave section the rider in front of me made a mistake and I had to take avoiding action – resulting in one of the biggest crashes I’ve had in a long time. I was quite beat up after it but was determined to compete in my first ever MXGP race. In race one I was still hurting but toughed out a 14th place result. I felt a bit better for race two but was struggling with confidence in the track. Finishing 11thoverall was a good improvement. Hopefully next weekend things will go smoother and I can finish inside the top 10 like I know I’m capable of.”

Davide Guarneri: “Yesterday I had a great day: great lap times in the Pre Qualifying Practices and a great manche where I finished 5th. Today, in the first race, I had a really bad start but I fought hard until the chequered flag finishing 12th; while in the second one, I was maintaining a very good pace and I succeeded in overtaking some riders, but while landing after a jump I broke the sprocket, maybe because of a stone, and I was forced to abandon.”

Tanel Leok: “I’m rather satisfied with my performance. It was my first race after my coming back and I’m really happy to have succeeded in obtaining some points… I will keep on working hard to reach my top form.”

Christopher Valente: “I’m not happy of my Qualifying Race. In both races I didn’t start really well, but in the second one I improved my lap times. It’s just the first race and I need more time to find the right condition.”

Petar Petrov:  I’m not happy with the result but I managed to show the speed is there. I rode the fourth best laptime in the first race, so that’s good. In the second race passing was so hard. It took me so long to get by Coldenhoff but by then the race was over. This really shows the start is important. I hope next week in Thailand the track will be rougher, which will suit me better then these fast races.”

Luke Styke: I’m really sorry for my team and friends the first GP had to go like this. I was just unfit to race. I’m struggling with a viral infection and 15 minutes into the race I started losing vision and strength, so it was impossible to continue like this. I hope to be better for Thailand next week.”

 

 
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