Herlings, Vialle Top Doubleheader
Opener at MXGP of Turkey
R
ed Bull KTM celebrated
double wins at the Bitchi.com
MXGP of Turkey, September 5,
the first of two races to be held
at the Afyon venue. The second
race, round nine of the FIM MXGP
Championship, will be held mid-
week on Wednesday, September
8. At the opener, Jeffrey Herlings
and Tom Vialle fired first shots,
winning the MXGP and MX2
classes, respectively.
Herlings settled into third place
in the opening MXGP moto then
went on the attack later in the
race, passing Kawasaki's Romain
Febvre for second then teammate
Jorge Prado for the lead. At that
point, it was all Herlings to the fin-
ish, with Prado taking second and
GasGas' Pauls Jonass taking third
after getting around Febvre, who
bobbled through a turn, three
laps from the end.
After struggling to find his pace
and rhythm and dealing with a
bout of arm pump while trying
to get around Glenn Coldenhoff
deep in the pack in moto one,
points leader, Honda's Tim Ga-
jser, rebounded to win moto two.
Prado ran second for much
of the second moto and had to
defend the position a few times
from his teammates Antonio Cai-
roli and Herlings. Prado caught a
break when Cairoli crashed. The
veteran, Cairoli, ran into a stray
course marker that had been
knocked onto the racecourse
by another racer. But the young
rider from Spain, Prado, couldn't
quite hold off Herlings, who got
around Prado for second place
when the Spaniard momentarily
IN
THE
WIND
P48
Jeffrey Herlings fought
hard for the victory at the
MXGP of Turkey, the first
of two GPs being held
there in just a four-day
span.
PHOTO: RAY ARCHER
