after a late-race pass on Colden-
hoff, who ended up fifth.
In the second moto, Cairoli
got the holeshot, and he led
Gajser as the pair began to pull
away from the field. Herlings
started fifth and worked his way
up to third by the end of the sec-
ond lap. It took him seven laps to
catch and pass Gajser, and then
another five to do the same with
Cairoli, but he made the pass
stick with five laps left to run and
took the moto victory by over
eight seconds ahead of Cairoli.
Herlings took yet another
perfect victory with a 1-1 ahead
of Cairoli's 3-2 and Gajser's 4-3.
Desalle was fourth overall with a
2-6 and Romain Febvre fifth with
his 7-4.
Herlings has now stretched
his points advantage to 62
points over Cairoli at the halfway
point in the championship.
"It was a really good week-
end," Herlings said. "I had pole
position yesterday and I got a
good holeshot in the first race
and I managed to lead the whole
race, do my own thing and get
the win. In the second race I re-
ally had to work for it, I messed
up the start and I had to work my
way up from around tenth place.
It was a good weekend and I'm
looking forward to Ottobiano, it
is one of my favorite tracks."
In the MX2 class, American
Thomas Covington won the
Saturday qualifying race on his
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna
over defending world champ and
points leader Pauls Jonass (Red
Bull KTM), and then carried
his momentum in moto one on
Sunday, grabbing the holeshot
in front of his teammate Thomas
Kjer Olsen.
Covington put time between
himself and his teammate in the
early stages while Jonass found
himself fighting to hang on to
third for the entire first half of the
moto, first coming under attack
from Husqvarna-mounted Ja-
cobi, and then by Prado. Once
Prado got the pass to stick,
Jonass was forced to settle for
fourth.
Covington took his second
moto win of the 2018 season
with about four seconds to
spare in front of Olsen, Prado
and Jonass with Yamaha's Jago
Geerts rounding out the top five.
For the second moto, Prado
returned to his usual, fast-start-
ing ways, grabbing the holeshot
over Geerts while Covington
found himself mired at the tail
end of the top 10. Meanwhile,
Jonass barely got going inside
the top 20 after a first-lap fall.
Covington fought his way for-
ward throughout the moto climb-
ing up to third.
"Overall it was a really good
weekend for me," Covington
said. "I have been struggling
the first half of the season so it
is good to get some consistent
races in a weekend. I felt really
strong, especially at the end. I
really found my rhythm."
Prado took the moto and
overall win.
Jonass still leads Prado in
the championship chase by 16
points. CN
MXGP
1. Jeffrey Herlings (KTM) 1-1
2. Antonio Cairoli (KTM) 3-2
3. Tim Gajser (Hon) 4-3
4. Clement Desalle (Kaw) 2-6
5. Romain Febvre (Yam) 7-4
MX2
1. Jorge Prado (KTM) 3-1
2. Thomas Covington (Hus) 1-3
3. Thomas Kjer Olsen (Hus) 2-4
4. Jago Geerts (Yam) 5-2
5. Pauls Jonass (KTM) 4-6
VOL. 55 ISSUE 23 JUNE 12, 2018 P29
