Matterley Basin was not too demanding today. Few holes in it, but a lot of rear wheel breakaway on the hard clay/chalk mix. But that is the same for everyone.
But we got a shocking first round in the MXGP qualification. With the holeshot for Glenn Coldenhoff, for Lucas Coenen and the tandem Herlings/Febvre and Kevin Hörgmo we seemed to be on our way to a nice qualification. Nothing of the sort. Herlings is in great shape and gobbled up both Coenen and Coldenhoff in the first round. Coenen, shocked by so much MX violence, had to let Febvre and Rubén Fernandez go in one lap, but was able to hold his own against Hörgmo Gifting and Vlaanderen. Jago Geerts came through as 11th, Brent Van doninck as penultimate. Brent would make good progress and conquered the fourteenth place. And Geerts disappeared from the race after two laps.
Febvre saw that things were not going so well with Coenen and Fernandez. So he looked ahead and successfully attacked Coldenhoff. And Romain then went looking for Herlings. He and Herlings let the opposition down and Fernandez's rush also stalled in fourth place. Febvre got on Jeffrey's wheel and literally went on the attack at the start of the final laps. 'The Bullet' let the Frenchman eat quite a bit of roost. And Jeffrey can handle a bit of pressure. The cards seemed to be shuffled, with another successful attack by Flanders on Hörgmo, but Febvre could not make that move. Great victory for Herlings and 9 extra points of confidence for Febvre. The returning Antonio Cairolo went off the track for a moment, and then became eleventh.
MXGP qualifying results: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 24:09.704; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:01.839; 3. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Fantic), +0:16.450; 4. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:20.606; 5. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:27.222; 6. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Yamaha), +0:29.950; 7. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Honda), +0:34.595; 8. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), +0:41.911; 9. Brian Bogers (NED, Fantic), +0:43.274; 10. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Ducati), +0:43.925; 11. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, Ducati), +0:51.906; 12. Tom Koch (GER, Beta), +0:54.645; 13. Alberto Forato (ITA, Honda), +0:58.379; 14. Brent Vandoninck (BEL, Honda), +1:02.504; 15. Cato Nickel (GER, Husqvarna), +1:10.409; 16. Adam Sterry (GBR, KTM), +1:11.737; 17. Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, KTM), +1:16.210; 18. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, Fantic), +1:24.777; 19. Tristan Purdon (RSA, Husqvarna), +1:25.541; 20. John Adamson (GBR, Honda), +1:45.380; 21. Matthew Miot (FRA, KTM), -1 lap(s); 22. Isaac Gifting (SWE, Yamaha), -6 lap(s); 23. Jago Geerts (BEL, Yamaha), -9 lap(s); 24. Ben Watson (GBR, Beta), -11 lap(s); 25. James Carpenter (GBR, Honda), -11 lap(s);
