Published on 8 November 2021

Herlings on his crash and battle for the title

Jeffrey Herlings wasn’t pulling any punches when he described his fall in race one at Mantova as “dumb.” The crash meant essentially a six point swing in the championship with Febvre winning, but Herlings rode an unbelievable race to get back to second from outside the top ten to limit the damage and keep the title within his own hands.

If Herlings had won both motos as his speed suggested he should have with Febvre second, Herlings would be leading by three points going into the final round. But with that crash and Febvre cool, calm and collected to win the first moto despite huge pressure, Herlings remains three points behind the Kawasaki rider and has virtually no margin for error, needing to win both motos on Wednesday if Febvre finishes second to win by just three points!

“What happened in the first race was so dumb,” asserted Herlings. “I put myself in a good position right from the start. I was behind Romain. I did exactly the same crash in the warmup. I just hit my left foot into the side and just got kicked off. I knew I had to work hard. I was almost dead last and worked my way to second. Second race, I had a decent start. I was straight into third and managed to pass Jorge and Romain. Then I was able to make a little gap. Then I was checking where Tony could be. I was actually not trying to run away too far. Then I saw that there was too big of a gap between Romain and Tony. Then I pulled away for the second half of the race.”

On the fight for the championship with just one round remaining an honest Herlings said: “Every point counts right now, so it’s -3. It’s going to be an all-out war on Wednesday. There’s a lot on the line. Different riders, different countries and different manufacturers all going towards the same goal which is the world title. It doesn’t matter who wins it. I think we both deserve it anyway. Even Tim. So, it will be a good one on Wednesday”.

Image: InFront Moto Racing