Jeffrey Herlings won his first world title in 2012 and 14 years later the now winningest GP rider of all time clinched his sixth world title with his 123rd Grand Prix win to equal Joel Robert in world titles and leave only Tony Cairoli on nine and Stefan Everts on ten world titles ahead of the Dutch legend.
Jeffrey said: “I’m really pleased about the weekend. Even though I had such a points gap, I was really stressed the last couple of weeks, the last practices, because I knew the only thing what could possibly ruin my championship was injury, and I’ve shown I was quite fragile in the past in my career when I had crashes. So, no, I tried to be smart, but at the same time, I just kept going as hard as I could because I knew when I’m front, I have the less risk. So, yeah, it was definitely nerve-wracking.
“I’m going to be honest, I haven’t slept much last night. I think I got three hours in. I was just like all kinds of scenarios, if this, if that, and just try to, you know, not crash. And actually, from all the scenarios I had in my head, I never guessed I was going to take two holeshots and led every single lap. So, no, I’m very pleased with it. It’s a sixth world championship, 123 GP wins, 11th of the year with Honda HRC Petronas
On dealing with the nerves: “I think that’s what some champions can do, I think. I mean, I hate being cocky or arrogant. That’s totally not my thing. But I think once you have won a couple of championship, you, at the moment when you have to pull it off, you’re able to pull that switch and send it when you have to and just don’t let the nerves take over. Because days like today, I have all my family, all my friends, all my sponsors, basically, even very highly achieving Honda HRC. Mr. Ichion now is here for the championship. So, yeah, even though there was not that much public at this race, I had quite some pressure. And I just wanted to do good for everyone and let them have a good weekend with me winning.
“So, no, I’m very pleased with it. Obviously, I don’t really have time to take time off because, jeez, I’ll be back at the practice track on Tuesday because we’ve got a couple of races to go. But we keep going until the end, I mean, the season, even though I won the championship isn’t over. I just keep trying to now get the record higher and higher from the GP wins and moto wins, whatever. So we keep going. I mean, the competition is still strong. Yes, there’s some guys injured, but you saw like Tom today, we were gone in the second moto. We had a massive gap and you see every weekend someone, like last weekend Kay, this weekend Tom, every weekend, it’s never easy. It’s never easy to win.”
On staying motivated: “Well, I just, I hate losing. That’s the first thing. But, like, I would definitely not enjoy this evening, even though I’m already thinking about next weekend, like, oh, I’m going to go to bed early because I want to win again next weekend. But at the same time, I can definitely not enjoy tonight if I didn’t win that second moto and also the championship. If I win a championship, I’ve never lost. With six championships I’ve won every time the moto and the championship at the same time, I hate coming in 15th and then win a championship. That’s not how I should win a championship, I think. So, yeah, pleased for that.”
Will he wear the number one next season? “That’s a good question. I mean, it’s always nice, the number one. But I hate arrogance. I was the same when I was 18 to maybe 25, I had a big mouth and I had a lot of arrogance. But now I think I’ve changed a lot and I hate it.
“And running number one, Romain is definitely not an arrogant person, 100% not. But, the number one, somebody wants to shoot a bullet because the number one is like the target, you know? Everyone wants that thing. I don’t know. I’ve done it once and actually got injured at the first photo shoot with Tom and that was it. One photo shoot only with the number one. So, I don’t know. We’re going to speak with the team but my heart is 84.”
