Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings decimated the Grand Prix of Latvia at Kegums for the twenty-two year old Dutchman’s maiden win on the KTM 450 SX-F.
With second position overall, Tony Cairoli has taken control of the FIM Motocross World Championship standings for the second time this term. In MX2 Pauls Jonass finished second overall for his fifth podium of the season
MXGP
Fresh from his debut podium appearance at the Grand Prix of Europe in Valkenswaard two weeks ago, triple MX2 World Champion Jeffrey Herlings carved the rough and testing Kegums soil to utterly dominate his seventh outing in the premier class of MXGP.
Herlings headed every session across the weekend: Practice, Qualification (his first Pole), Warm-up and both motos thanks to bright starts and little opposition. The 50 point-haul moved him up to 7th in the championship table.
Herlings: “We were fastest all weekend long and it was the cherry on the cake [to go 1-1]. We have more confidence with this result and it means a lot; it felt like a long time since my last win! This is a boost but Teutschenthal is a new weekend and I will hope to get the best out of it.”
Qatar and Trento Grand Prix victor Tony Cairoli was no match for his teammate in Latvia and the Sicilian lamented some tricky starts that kept his progress in at Kegums to a 5-2 and second position overall. It was the thirty-one year old’s fourth champagne uncorking of the season and permitted a 17 point lead over Tim Gajser.
Cairoli: “I’m OK with the weekend and expected a little bit of a better result but my opponents did even worse than me so for the championship it is good. I always want to fight for the win but today was not possible and I wasn’t happy with my starts or the first moto. In the second race I came back to second after seeing some very scary crashes from riders around the track. I was riding carefully and could see that Jeffrey was very fast. This was OK for the championship and can begin to see a bit of a bigger picture. I’m happy and we go to Teutschenthal which is a track I always like.”
Next Round: May 21 2017 – Teutschenthal (GER)
Results MXGP Kegums 2017
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED), KTM (1-1)
2. Tony Cairoli (ITA), KTM (5-2)
3. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS), Honda (3-4)
4. Clement Desalle (BEL), Kawasaki (2-5)
5. Gautier Paulin (FRA), Husqvarna (7-7)
Standings MXGP 2017 after 7 of 19 rounds
1. Cairoli, 258 points
2. Gajser, 241
3. Paulin, 220
4. Bobryshev, 214
5. Desalle, 210
Other KTM
7. Herlings, 174
11. Coldenhoff, 124