VOL. 55 ISSUE 27 JULY 10, 2018 P25
turns. Desalle was in the lead
next but Herlings took it away
before the first lap was complete.
But Desalle was still charging to
insides of Herlings and showing
him a wheel, as Paulin crashed
while under pressure from Lieber.
Seewer was also riding well and
up into fourth. On lap 13, Seewer
would also lose his position to
Cairoli whose forward progress
wouldn't be enough to catch
Gajser in third.
At the finish, Herlings took the
win with Desalle second, Gajser
third, Cairoli fourth, and Seewer
fifth. In the overall result, Herlings
took the clear win with a 1-1, Ga-
jser took second with a 2-3, and
Desalle returned to the podium
for the first time since winning
the MXGP of Russia with 4-2 for
third.
In MX2, moto one began with
Prado taking the holeshot ahead
points leader Jonass. Jonass had
Calvin Vlaanderen (Team HRC)
just to his inside and Thomas
Kjer Olsen (Rockstar Energy
Husqvarna) to his outside. Vlaan-
deren grabbed a handful of front
brake on the entry to the next
turn resulting in him going down,
and just moments later, Olsen
was down, too, when he lost
traction on the freshly watered,
hard-packed track. His teammate
Thomas Covington slammed
into Olsen's downed bike and
crashed as well.
With some room to breathe
early, Jonass pushed to pass
Prado but then fell himself after
losing the front end on the slick
track. Quick to get up, Jonass
was still second ahead of Ben
Watson and Michele Cervellin.
Back at the front, Jonass had
again caught Prado with the
help of lapped riders and mis-
takes from the Spaniard. Jonass
passed for the lead on lap nine
and then started to pull away.
Also making big passes to fin-
ish the race was Vlaanderen, who
came back from last to finish fifth
ahead of Cervellin and Coving-
ton. Winning the race was Jonass
with Prado second and Watson
third.
Moto two was off to another
wild start with Jonass crashing
in the first turn, while Prado took
the holeshot and lead. Vlaan-
deren had another strong jump
off of the grid and kept the mis-
takes to a minimum in second.
Covington also rebounded from
his race-one crash and found
himself third followed by Watson
and Olsen.
Four laps into the race, Cov-
ington took second from Vlaan-
deren, Jonass was up to 10th and
Olsen made a pass on Watson
for fourth on lap five.
The top five remained un-
changed for the next 10 laps until
Vlaanderen made a charge with
two laps to go and reclaimed sec-
ond from Covington.
Jonass, meanwhile, had
clawed his way back to sixth in
a massive effort. Crossing the
finish first was Prado with Vlaan-
deren, Covington, Olsen, and
Watson finishing out the top five.
On the overall podium it was
Prado, followed by Jonass and
Vlaanderen. Prado's effort has
tied the MX2 Championship
standings at 550 points for both
himself and Jonass. Jonass will,
however, maintain the red plate
having more race wins. CN
MXGP
1. Jeffrey Herlings (KTM) 1-1
2. Tim Gajser (Hon) 2-3
3. Clement Desalle (Kaw) 4-2
4. Antonio Cairoli (KTM) 3-4
5. Tommy Searle (Kaw) 7-7
MX2
1. Jorge Prado (KTM) 2-1
2. Pauls Jonass (KTM) 1-6
3. Calvin Vlaanderen (Hon) 5-2
4. Ben Watson (Yam) 3-5
5. Thomas Covington (Hus) 7-3
