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HERLINGS BACK TO THE TOP AT INDONESIA MXGP L ess than three weeks after breaking his collarbone, and then having it surgically plated, Jeffrey Herlings (Red Bull KTM) returned to action in Indonesia, July 1, in an attempt to maintain control of what would be his first MXGP World Champion- ship. Herlings won the qualifying race on Saturday, then grabbed both holeshots during Sunday's motos to maximize his odds of keeping his points lead. Defending champ Antonio Cairoli started right behind Herlings in the first moto and bided his time until Herlings made a mistake. Cairoli pounced and then sped off with the moto victory over Herlings, Clement Desalle (Monster Energy Kawa- saki), Tim Gajser (Honda HRC) and Romain Febvre (Monster Energy Yamaha). Herlings again got the start at the beginning of the second moto while Gajser and Cairoli duked it out for second in the early stages. Cairoli eventually cleared himself of that battle and set out after Herlings, who had about a five-second lead in the closing minutes of the race when he went down in a corner. As he got up, Cairoli went by; only to fall himself a few turns later and hand the lead back to Herlings. Cairoli remounted with bent bars and a missing throttle grip and rode the last couple of laps to the finish, taking second behind Herlings and leaving the first of two Indonesian GPs with the same 12-point gap behind Herlings that he came into the event with. Febvre's 5-3 was good enough for third overall on the day. "I pulled really good starts this weekend, especially today with two holeshots, so I'm really happy about it," Herlings said. "In race one, I just tried to be smart. I felt like I could run Tony [Cairoli]'s pace, but not for 35 minutes. There are still a lot of races left and next week I want to take it a bit easy then I will home for two weeks before Loket. Hopefully, by Lommel, I will be back to 100%." In the MX2 class, it has become almost a tradition for American Thomas Covington (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna), to win the opening MX2 moto of the day, and he did it again in Indonesia. Covington got the holeshot in the first moto and just sped off with the win, end- ing the race with a 13-second lead over defending champ and points leader Pauls Jonass (Red Bull KTM) and Calvin Vlaanderen (Honda HRC). In moto two, though, Coving- ton started outside the top 10, while Vlaanderen got his first holeshot of the season. Vlaan- deren focused ahead and began IN THE WIND P38 Jeffrey Herlings (84) returned to his winning ways the MXGP of Indonesia. PHOTOGRAPHY BY KTM IMAGES/RAY ARCHER