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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1539282
Herlings, Laengenfelder Top Turkish GP T he 18th round of the FIM Mo- tocross World Championship took place at the Afyon Motor Sport Center for the MXGP of Tur- kiye, September 6-7. Hard-packed conditions challenged the riders as the season entered its final stretch. Two teammates on the Red Bull KTM squad, Jeffrey Her- lings and Simon Laengenfelder, both used second-moto victories to secure their overall wins. MXGP Herlings notched his 50th MXGP win in Turkiye. Despite the completely opposite track conditions from round 17 in the Netherlands, the Dutchman looked comfortable on the hard soil as he looked to maintain his momentum from winning at the previous round. Herlings slotted into second during race one and followed his KTM teammate, Lucas Coenen, to the line. Herlings stalked Romain Febvre closely for the first half of race two. A pass came on lap nine as Herlings cut inside the current points leader. From there, he held the advantage and used 2-1 finishes to claim the day's overall win. "It was really good, better than I could expect," Herlings said. "We're quite high [in elevation] here, so we had to change some things on the bike, but it was all positive." Lucas Coenen gained small but crucial ground in the cham - pionship by finishing second on the day. The MXGP rookie led from start to finish in the open- ing moto, claiming the holeshot and the race win to start the day. Mistakes in the early stages of race two cut his work out for him as Herlings and Febvre got away at the front of the field. By the fi - nal lap, Coenen caught up to Fe- bvre's rear wheel but couldn't get close enough to make a pass stick. Still, 1-3 results put him second overall and 26 points back in the championship. Febvre is still in control of the championship with third overall. With two rounds left, Febvre still leads the points by 26. "The second race was better," Febvre said. "We made a change a little too late for the first race, but it worked in the second one. I was leading, then Jeffrey passed me. I tried to stay with him, and in the last laps, Lucas came hard to try and pass me, but I managed to finish second. WIND IN THE P62 Jeffrey Herlings earned his 111th career win after holding off Romain Febvre at the MXGP of Turkiye.