| May 9, 2016
So far this year in the MX2 class it hasn’t been a case of will Jeffrey Herlings win, but how much will he win by. The Dutch rider has completely dominated everyone in all six rounds leading into Germany, May 8, and despite him suffering the flu all week, another convincing win in qualification seemed to suggest it’d be more of the same on this rutty Teutschenthal track. However, it didn’t prove to be quite so easy for the Dutchman to remain unbeaten. In moto one, an average start meant he had to work his way through from fourth, eventually passing Dylan Ferrandis midway through the moto and stretching it out to a 14-second gap win. Max Anstie came through in third with Swiss rider Jeremy Seewer overcoming a first-lap crash to come back all the way to fourth with a great ride.
In race two, Herlings, once again, got a bad start and with all his main competition ahead of him, he had his work cut out. Anstie led the race right up until a few laps from the end, when a bad landing shot him off the Husqvarna. Ferrandis took the lead at this point but having just coming back from injury, he isn’t quite fully fit yet and Seewer then Herlings passed him with minutes remaining. Those two had been having a battle royale all moto long and now that they were 1-2, the intensity increased even more. Finally though, Herlings swept inside him and stretched his unbeaten record to 14 motos. After the checkered flag, Herlings refused to shake Seewer’s hand and was quite irate for what he perceived to be dangerous riding by the Swiss, even accusing the Suzuki rider of trying to take him out due to orders from his ex-boss Stefan Everts. It seemed like a flashback to a younger Herlings, but perhaps the flu and the fact he looked exhausted after the race played a part.
Not to be outdone by the MX2 class, things were equally dramatic with the MXGP boys as teammates decided this was the weekend to air their grievances on the track. In the Yamaha camp, Romain Febvre decided that he preferred Jeremy van Horebeek’s gate, thus prompting a discussion between the two that was settled when van Horebeek ploughed into the side of the reigning champ on the first lap, plunging him down the field where he could only make his way back up to 10th. Meanwhile at the front of the field, Antonio Cairoli and Tim Gajser put on a great show with the youngster giving the multi-time champ everything he could handle before finally admitting defeat and backing it down. German Max Nagl came home third, much to the delight of the home crowd.
In part two of the teammate battles, Honda pair (although not strictly teammates) Evgeny Bobryshev and Gajser collided in the second moto as Gajser tried to pass his Russian elder. Just like in Latvia, this left the MX2 champ with a lot of work to do, but he slowly but surely worked his way back up to fourth. This meant that Febvre could only make up one place and two points on his championship rival after a pretty disappointing weekend. The main benefactor of all this action though was Cairoli who went 1-1 for his first MXGP win of 2016. The Italian is now 36 points behind Gajser, who leads Febvre by eight points and with 11 rounds left, there is plenty of time to close that gap on the two current champs. It’s all shaping up to be a great year!
In the EMX250 class, American Darian Sanayei moved up to fourth place in the championship with another podium performance. His 6-2 results on this technical track gave him third overall behind Australian Hunter Lawrence and Danish red-plate holder Thomas Kjer Olsen. Sanayei sits 37 points behind the Dane with seven rounds remaining.
-David Bulmer
RESULTS
MX2 Class
- Jeffrey Herlings (KTM) 1-1
- Dylan Ferrandis (Kaw) 2-3
- Jeremy Seewer (Suz) 4-2
- Max Anstie (Hus) 3-5
- Benoit Paturel (Yam) 7-4
MXGP Class
- Antonio Cairoli (KTM) 1-1
- Tim Gajser (Hon) 2-4
- Evgeny Bobryshev (Hon) 8-2
- Max Nagl (Hus) 306
- Romain Febvre (Yam) 10-3