🇹🇷 MXGP of Türkiye | Afyonkarahisar – Round 17: QUALIFYING & results!

QUALIFYING

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MXGP

Jeffrey Herlings continued to show his dominance of the MXGP field with the top time in both Free Practice and Time Practice sessions, but the lap for the first gate pick came right at the end of the session, just unseating Tim Gajser by seven tenths of a second. Romain Febvre was third quickest ahead of surprise packages Jeremy Seewer on the Venrooy Racing KTM, and Jan Pancar on his TEM JP253 Racing KTM.

However, from the sixth gate pick, Tom Vialle carved across the outside of Gajser, who had out-jumped Herlings out of the gate, although the series leader held a tight line to charge into the second corner third behind the Frenchman and the Slovenian, as Febvre and Seewer gave chase!

Seewer was quickly passed by sole Red Bull KTM Factory Racing warrior Andrea Adamo for fifth, and the third Honda HRC Petronas of Ruben Fernandez also got past the Swiss veteran. The Spaniard was able to pass the Italian on lap three for fifth.

Up front, Herlings sneaked to the inside of Gajser as they charged into the split lane section, grabbing third halfway around the opening lap! He soon caught up to Vialle, but the three-time MX2 winner here has remembered the perfect racing lines and was not making any mistakes for his Dutch teammate to pounce upon!

Further back, Pauls Jonass had run off-track to the outside of turn one, but fought through the pack well to claim ninth for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, while Alberto Forato took the final point in tenth on his return to action for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP.  They were both assisted by a big crash for Fernandez on lap ten, and the Spaniard rode off the circuit in pain.  We all hope he is healthy enough to compete tomorrow.

That promoted Adamo to fifth place, his best Qualifying Race result ever in Türkiye!  Pancar made a last lap pass to take sixth place from Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team rider Calvin Vlaanderen, with Seewer in eighth.

Herlings continued to press Vialle, and got close again with three laps to go. On the penultimate lap, after being thwarted in an outside passing attempt around a 90-degree left-hander, he made a cutting outside to inside move through a right-handed hairpin that snatched the lead away from his teammate!

Gajser and Febvre were lurking, but they would finish third and fourth respectively, while Vialle attempted a last lap run to reclaim the lead, but Herlings was able to hold on by just over a second, making it five Qualifying Race wins in a row, and his 15th race win in succession!

This leaves the points gap at the top at 146 points between Jeffrey and Romain, and if he is 145 ahead after race one tomorrow then he can be crowned World Champion for the sixth time! Finishing ahead of Febvre will be the goal for Herlings, although it’s likely that he will just want to keep his streak alive and win the title in style!

Make sure you tune in tomorrow for just that little bit of Motocross history!

Jeffrey Herlings: “I had a quite okay start, it was a little bit off. I managed to pass Febvre in the first turn, also Tim Gajser somewhere in the first lap and I was stuck behind Tom. He was riding really good. He didn’t ride dirty, but he just had the perfect lines. He is my teammate also and I respect him, so I didn’t want to put any dirty moves. With two laps to go I had to do something, I didn’t touch him, but I had to go in a bit harder. Nice to sit on pole for tomorrow’s race, it’s an important race for me. Let’s go into tomorrow and do our best and work from there.”

Tom Vialle: “I felt good to be honest. Great start again and I think my pace was fine. It was tough, I mean Jeffrey, Tim and Romain behind me the whole moto. Unfortunately Jeffrey got me at two laps to go, so hopefully tomorrow I can handle him a little bit longer.”

Tim Gajser: “I felt the whole day quite good on the track. The track was starting to get quite hard now for qualifying race, but decent start and I was there. Then I was just a little bit too defensive on the first couple of laps, where Jeffrey passed me. Then I picked up the speed of him and Vialle. Pretty happy with the riding, but tomorrow is a new day!”

MX2

Liam Everts was the fastest rider in Free Practice ahead of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing duo Simon Längenfelder and Sacha Coenen. Coenen took the first gate pick, however, with a time just a quarter of a second up from Triumph Factory Racing Team’s Camden McLellan. next came Everts and Längenfelder, with series leader Guillem Farres lining up in fifth.

Sacha used that inside gate to great effect with a trademark Holeshot, with Everts and Farres disputing second through the second corner, while Längenfelder had to deal with the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 rider Janis Reisulis in a battle for fourth. McLellan was behind Janis’ brother and teammate Karlis Reisulis, but pulled a nice outside to inside pass to get through to sixth, then took advantage of Janis running wide to take fifth down the next straight.

Farres had gone around the outside of Everts to claim that second place, and with a stunning turn of speed he chopped across the front of Coenen to lead halfway around the opening lap!

From there, all of the passing was being done further down the pack, as Scott Smulders enjoyed his first visit to Türkiye with tenth for SixtySeven Racing Team, having made a mid-race pass on the Venrooy Racing KTM of Noel Zanocz.  In the same spot on the track, the braking zone into the corner that leads back to the start straight, Maxime Grau passed Karlis Reisulis to claim a career-best Qualifying Race finish of seventh for

Maddi Racing Honda ABF Italia. Between those battles, Ošicka KTM MX Team rider Julius Mikula finished in ninth place.  Janis continued to pressure McLellan, who was unable to get past Längenfelder, dropping over nine seconds back from the defending Champion to finish fifth ahead of the younger Latvian brother.

The German had a lonely race to fourth, ten seconds back from Everts. The Belgian closed in on Coenen, but finished a second and a half back in third place.  The top two in the series took first and second, pulling them both away from McLellan, who is now 15 behind the KTM man.

Farres took just his second career Qualifying Race win, extending his Championship lead over Coenen to 26 points.  This battle for the MX2 title is likely to run and run, and for sure McLellan will need better starts tomorrow to keep himself relevant to that battle.

We should be in for an enthralling day of racing tomorrow in MX2, and the MXGP of Türkiye is likely to make a big difference to the title tussle between three riders who have never been in this territory before!

Guillem Farres: “I got a bad start, but I made magic on the first lap as always. I was controlling the race and feeling great, the bike’s awesome, the team has done an amazing job and let’s keep it that way!”

Source / Pictures: MXGP