EASTERN PROMISE FOR HERLINGS AND SACHA COENEN WITH QUALIFYING WINS AT THE ORIENTAL BEAUTY VALLEY MXGP OF CHINA!

With morning sunshine making way for cloud cover and rain showers for this afternoon’s Qualifying Races at The Oriental Beauty Valley MXGP of China, the stifling heat and humidity was still a factor for the riders at the Shanghai International Off-Road Circuit, but they still entertained with two tense Qualifying Races to set the stage for tomorrow’s Grand Prix and earn the top finishers some Championship points in the process!

In-form record winner and yesterday’s birthday boy Jeffrey Herlings took a rare start-to- finish win for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, facing a late challenge from Honda HRC’s Tim Gajser, who took second ahead of Championship leader Romain Febvre, as the Frenchman extended his series lead to 30 points for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP!

A week after claiming his first ever Qualifying Race victory in Türkiye, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing flyer Sacha Coenen repeated the feat with his own start-to-finish win, while his teammate Simon Längenfelder increased his points lead with second place ahead of Honda HRC rookie Valerio Lata.

The weather forecast is fluctuating constantly, and could prove to be just as unpredictable as the races in tomorrow’s Oriental Beauty Valley MXGP of China!

Red plate holder Romain Febvre set the top time in Free Practice ahead of Honda HRC’s Ruben Fernandez and Jeffrey Herlings, but “The Bullet” came in with a late flyer to take the first gate pick with the fastest lap in Time Practice! Tim Gajser came in second ahead of title chaser Lucas Coenen for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, while Febvre was relegated to fifth behind Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP rider Maxime Renaux.

From his usual inside gate starting position, there was a last-second moment of drama for Herlings as he shouted for a change of goggles on the line! Unable to do so, and obviously fired up, “The Bullet” then blasted into the lead to take a rare Holeshot, fighting off Renaux and Febvre who were hot on his heels!

Febvre made a slight mistake and was passed on either side by Gajser and the second Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP machine of Jago Geerts, before the Belgian dropped the bike in the following corner! His teammate Calvin Vlaanderen, meanwhile, was causing trouble for Coenen by relegating him to eighth place! It was not a good start for the teenage title challenger.

Gajser jumped past Renaux into second at the end of the first full lap, with Febvre in fourth ahead of Fernandez, Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Pauls Jonass, Vlaanderen, Coenen, and the Fantic Factory Racing MXGP duo of Andrea Bonacorsi and Glenn Coldenhoff.

Coenen started to move forward with a pass on Jonass for seventh, and was closing in on Vlaandeeren, but the De Carli teamster was unable to advance any further than seventh as the drizzle intensified and made the track a difficult one to pass on.

Febvre had carved inside Renaux on lap two, and fought hard to get onto the back wheel of Gajser, but the Slovenian had other plans and instead began to reel in Herlings!

Geerts did well to recover to 12th after his early fall, but of course didn’t collect any points. Jonass took eighth at the flag ahead of Bonacorsi and Coldenhoff, and Coenen stayed in seventh behind Vlaanderen. Febvre, Renaux, and Fernandez finished close to two seconds apart in third, fourth, and fifth, but in the intense heat and difficult conditions many of the riders seemed to be conserving energy for tomorrow’s brutally tough races.

Gajser got the closest to making a move, but still finished just over a second behind Herlings, who took his fourth Qualifying Race win of the season, leaving him just a point behind Vlaanderen in the battle for fifth in the Championship! Meanwhile, Febvre made four further points on Coenen today, building his cushion to exactly 30 points in the Championship with just five gate drops to go!

Will there be a further twist in the tale tomorrow? Any result is possible on what could be a wild day in The Magic City!

Jeffrey Herlings: “I felt really good out there today. Time practice was solid and I managed to get the inside gate, which helped. I did run into a bit of an issue with my goggles fogging up because of the humidity, but once I got the holeshot I could clear it with some tear-offs and settle into my rhythm. Leading the whole race and taking the win felt great, and I’m really happy with how it went. The travel was tough, I only got here yesterday morning and barely slept but last night I finally caught up with some good rest. Hopefully we can keep it dry tomorrow, get another good night of sleep, and go for it again.”

MXGP – Qualifying Race Classification: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 24:35.560; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:01.346; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:14.042; 4. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:16.024; 5. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:18.686; 6. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:20.957; 7. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:23.892; 8. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), +0:30.159; 9. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, Fantic), +0:40.950; 10. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Fantic), +0:42.806

MXGP – World Championship Classification: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 893 points; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 863 p.; 3. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 639 p.; 4. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 563 p.; 5. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 533 p.; 6. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 532 p.; 7. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 490 p.; 8. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, FAN), 482 p.; 9. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 420 p.; 10. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, DUC), 358 p.;

Main Photo: Jeffrey Herlings

Top Photo: MXGP Start China

Bottom Photos: 1. Tim Gajser; 2. Romain Febvre

It was no surprise at all to see teenage flyer Sacha Coenen take the fastest time in both Free and Time Practice sessions, while Italian pair Andrea Adamo for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, and Valerio Lata for Honda HRC, completed the top three in Free Practice. In Time Practice, Simon Längenfelder backed up his teammate Coenen with second ahead of his main title rival Kay de Wolf, third for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing.

Coenen pulled a trademark Holeshot, and in fact it was a 1-2 for the De Carli team’s Red Bull KTM machines with Längenfelder right on the Belgian’s shoulder. Lata was in a fighting third ahead of Jens Walvoort, but the KTM BTS Racing Team rider dropped down the order on the opening lap, and would eventually retire early with machine trouble. Instead it was Guillem Farres who took fourth for Monster Energy Triumph Racing, whose other rider Camden McLellan had fallen in the first corner, holding up the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 pilot Rick Elzinga in the process!

Halfway round the first lap, Liam Everts was running in eighth, just behind his Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing teammate Kay de Wolf, but the Belgian dropped his bike halfway round the first full lap with a simple washout in the loose topsoil! De Wolf, for his part, was behind the leading Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 rider Karlis Reisulis, who put a brilliant switchback pass on Farres to take fourth on lap two! De Wolf had got up to sixth ahead of Kawasaki Racing Team MX2 rookie Mathis Valin, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing challenger Andrea Adamo, Kay Karssemakers on the Bike-It Kawasaki, and KTM Australia wildcard Byron Dennis!

While Sacha got the hammer down, despite the rain starting to fall, the scrap was going on behind Längenfelder and Lata, as Reisulis took advantage of De Wolf’s attacks on Farres to pull away from the duelling pair! De Wolf eventually made an aggressive pass on the last corner of lap six to take fifth, then hauled in Reisulis to pass him at the far end of the circuit and take fourth place on lap nine.

Elzinga and Everts made great recoveries from their early issues to finish ninth and tenth, the Belgian just keeping McLellan out of the points in 11th, leaving him just five points down on the South African in the battle for sixth in the Championship! Valin held off a disappointed Adamo for seventh, leaving the Italian now a massive 68 points behind the Championship leader.

Farres showed great spirit to re-pass Reisulis for fifth with three laps to go, while Lata, aware that De Wolf was closing in on him, made his HRC Honda extremely wide to keep the defending Champion behind him for his third-best Qualifying Race result of the year! This leaves the Husqvarna man with a larger points deficit to Längenfelder, who gratefully took second to build his slight lead to 14.

Sacha Coenen, however, enjoyed a six-second cushion by the chequered flag to claim his second career Qualifying Race win a week after his first! Now mathematically uncatchable in fourth with the absence of Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2’s injured rider Thibault Benistant for the rest of the year, he is now 63 behind Adamo and looking in great form!

As always though, MX2’s results can be wildly different between Qualifying and the GP races, so nothing is easy to call in this wild series, especially not the destination of the World Championship trophy!

Both Championships will add more to their story tomorrow, so tune in and join us for more enthralling action from the Magic City in the Far East!

Sacha Coenen “I’m feeling really good. It was hot and a little tiring for everyone today, but I had a strong race, led all the laps, and just did my race. I’m really happy with it, and tomorrow the plan is simple: try to do the same again.”

MX2 – Qualifying Race Classification: 1. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 24:02.438; 2. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:06.532; 3. Valerio Lata (ITA, Honda), +0:16.124; 4. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:16.924; 5. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), +0:22.415; 6. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:23.915; 7. Mathis Valin (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:24.538; 8. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:33.133; 9. Rick Elzinga (NED, Yamaha), +0:36.776; 10. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:41.123

MX2 – World Championship Classification: 1. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 842 points; 2. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 828 p.; 3. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 774 p.; 4. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 711 p.; 5. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 603 p.; 6. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 582 p.; 7. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 577 p.; 8. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 433 p.; 9. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 421 p.; 10. Mathis Valin (FRA, KAW), 413 p.