Jeffrey Herlings hurled himself back into the MXGP Championship points lead after a hard-fought win at the MXGP of France at LaCapelle-Marival, October 10, round 12 of 18 of the FIM Motocross Grand Prix Championship.
VIDEO | 2021 MXGP of France Results News Highlights
Urged on by the home crowd, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Roman Febvre charged past the Dutchman, Herlings, in the first moto to take the lead, and then he barely held off the Red Bull KTM rider to take the exciting first-moto win, much to the delight of the French crowd.
After getting around early leader Antonio Cairoli in the second MXGP moto, it was another Herlings/Febvre duel for the win, and this time it went Herlings’ way.
Febvre led much of the race but couldn’t shake Herlings, who eventually got around Febvre and inched away for the moto and overall win.
The victory moved Herlings back into the championship lead. Both Herlings and Febvre surged ahead of now former points leader Tim Gajser (Honda HRC), who went 6-3 on the day for third overall.
Herlings, Febvre and Gajser, 1-2-3 in the championship, are covered by just 10 points. Herlings leads Febvre by six points with Gajser another four points back.
“A pretty good day,” Herlings said. “I already knew this morning that Romain would be good here and I had to step up my game. The setup I had for the first moto was pretty hard and there were a lot of off-cambers; I was struggling with some arm-pump. Romain made a pass and I had to let him go. At the end of the moto, I tried to close him back, but I was just a bit too late. He won fair and square. I had another good start in the second moto and tried to pull away, but it was tough. I entered a turn too hard and just washed out a front wheel; luckily, I didn’t lose too much time and again managed to close it back down to Romain. We had a bit of bar-banging with the pass, but I knew on this track you had to make a statement.”
In MX2, the crowd got to see one of its own come away a winner. Red Bull KTM’s Tom Vialle won both MX2 motos to take the overall victory, while another Frenchman, Maxime Renaux, kept the crowd entertained by coming up through the pack in both motos.
The Yamaha rider, Renaux, ended up going 4-2 for his effort, but it wasn’t enough to beat Red Bull KTM’s Mattia Guadagnini of Italy for second place, so the Yamaha rider had to settle for third overall.
Renaux, however, still enjoys a comfortable lead over Belgian Yamaha rider Jago Geerts (5-4, fifth overall in France) in the MX2 Championship by a whopping 91 points. Guadagnini is third in the championship, just four points behind Geerts. Despite having the most wins in the class, Vialle still sits fourth in the championship, 21 points behind Guadagnini.
“A really nice day,” said winner Vialle. “It’s the first time I’ve won the French GP and it’s amazing to ride in front of the public. Last year we didn’t have many fans at the races, so this was very nice. I had a bit more pressure than a ‘normal’ GP today, but I managed to do good. The starts were really important. The track was sketchy, and I don’t think this was my best GP in terms of riding, but I’m really happy to win both motos again.” CN
2021 MXGP of France Results
MXGP
- Jeffrey Herlings (KTM) 2-1
- Romain Febvre (Kaw) 1-2
- Tim Gajser (Hon) 6-3
- Jeremy Seewer (Yam) 3-6
- Tony Cairoli (KTM) 5-4
MX2
- Tom Vialle (KTM) 1-1
- Mattia Guadagnini (KTM) 2-3
- Maxime Renaux (Yam) 4-2
- Jed Beaton (Hus) 3-6
- Jago Geerts (Yam) 5-4
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