Jeffrey Herlings was the story in MXGP in Germany as he crashed out of the lead hard in the opening moto while leading with three laps to go as Prado pressured the Dutchman.
Herlings front wheel washed and then unluckily caught a bump and threw him over the bars hard and onto the rock hard ground with a thud.
Herlings got up slowly and was visibly in pain but refused to pull out, riding slowly around the track until the chequered flag, taking 20th as Prado his title rival took the win. With Prado then saying he could see Herlings was pushing and he was waiting for a mistake.
Oh man Herlings just had a big one from the lead in Germany with Prado on him. Such a weird spot to crash so hard pic.twitter.com/LhnHjsCT7z
— Kellen Brauer (@kellenbrauer) June 11, 2023
Race two and, with Herlings not behind the gate due to the pain, the pressure was off Prado who gated second behind Coldenhoff as Seewer crashed on lap one and Febvre crashed a couple of laps in chasing Prado for second.
Seewer came all the way back to fifth, right on the back wheel of Fernandez, who made a mistake with two laps to go giving the charging Seewer hope, but it was Fernandez who got the podium at the expense of Seewer with Coldenhoff second overall.
A patient Jorge Prado made his move on Coldenhoff with three laps to go to win all three motos over the weekend with the technical track suiting his precise style and excellent balance perfectly.
Prado, who now has a 67 point lead in the championship over Herlings, said: “It’s been a perfect weekend. I knew this track would suit me, and I executed the plan. I’m super happy. It’s the first time I win both motos this year, perfect weekend. I hope Jeffrey can come back as soon as possible, it’s nice battling him for the championship.”
Jeremy Van Horebeek returned to action as fill-in for Pauls Jonass and claimed an excellent ninth overall with Mitch Evans having his best day so far this season on the Kawasaki in seventh.
| MXGP – GP Classification |
| 1. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 50 points; 2. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, YAM), 40 p.; 3. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 38 p.; 4. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, YAM), 38 p.; 5. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 35 p.; 6. Alberto Forato (ITA, KTM), 30 p.; 7. Mitchell Evans (AUS, KAW), 27 p.; 8. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 24 p.; 9. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, HON), 22 p.; 10. Tom Koch (GER, KTM), 22 p.; 11. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 21 p.; 12. Ben Watson (GBR, BET), 20 p.; 13. Tim Koch (GER, SUZ), 15 p.; 14. Jere Haavisto (FIN, KTM), 11 p.; 15. Alvin Östlund (SWE, HON), 11 p.; 16. Henry Jacobi (GER, KTM), 11 p.; 17. Maximilian Spies (GER, KTM), 8 p.; 18. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, BET), 8 p.; 19. Adam Sterry (GBR, KTM), 4 p.; 20. Kevin Brumann (SUI, YAM), 3 p.; 21. Nico Koch (GER, KTM), 2 p.; 22. Ashton Dickinson (GBR, KTM), 1 p.; 23. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 1 p.; 24. Micha-Boy De Waal (NED, GAS), 0 p.; 25. Albin Gerhardsson (SWE, HUS), 0 p.; 26. Tristan Purdon (RSA, KTM), 0 p.; 27. Emanuele Alberio (ITA, HUS), 0 p.; 28. Tom Grimshaw (GBR, GAS), 0 p.; 29. Noah Ludwig (GER, KTM), 0 p.; 30. Petar Petrov (BUL, YAM), 0 p.; 31. Michael Ivanov (BUL, HUS), 0 p.; 32. Paul Haberland (GER, HUS), 0 p.; 33. Philipp Klakow (GER, HUS), 0 p.; 34. Brian Bogers (NED, HON), 0 p.; |
| MXGP – World Championship Classification |
| 1. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 453 points; 2. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 386 p.; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 347 p.; 4. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 337 p.; 5. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, YAM), 320 p.; 6. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, YAM), 304 p.; 7. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 286 p.; 8. Alberto Forato (ITA, KTM), 229 p.; 9. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 205 p.; 10. Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, GAS), 203 p.; 11. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 202 p.; 12. Ben Watson (GBR, BET), 117 p.; 13. Alessandro Lupino (ITA, BET), 116 p.; 14. Brent Van doninck (BEL, HON), 114 p.; 15. Brian Bogers (NED, HON), 112 p.; 16. Benoit Paturel (FRA, YAM), 109 p.; 17. Tom Koch (GER, KTM), 88 p.; 18. Alvin Östlund (SWE, HON), 85 p.; 19. Mitchell Evans (AUS, KAW), 76 p.; 20. Pauls Jonass (LAT, HON |
In MX2 Liam Everts won his first ever GP with a 2-1 score to become the third generation Grand Prix winner after his dad and grandad. An unbelievable achievement for the family and a memorable day for Liam who has had to deal with all that pressure of his name but is now a Grand Prix winner in his own right.
A calm Everts said: “Shame for Lucas. The last 8 minutes were so hard mentality to be smooth. It felt like an eternity. I took it smooth and hard work paid off. It’s a very hard job to be third generation and perform under this pressure. But that was really cool. I just have 100 to go now!”
Liam’s joy was in contrast to Lucas Coenen’s frustration with the 16 year old winning moto one and leading moto 2 by two seconds over Everts with seven minutes to go when his bike broke and left the young Belgian distraught as his first GP win, and a 1-1 at that was taken away from him without him making a mistake. It was no guarantee with Everts so close but Coenen never had the chance to fight for it. It’s a brutal sport.
But for Red Bull KTM it was a perfect day with 1-2 and Adamo taking second overall and the championship lead on a dream day for KTM!
Meanwhile Jago Geerts and Kay de Wolf showed incredible resolve to ride in pain, under lining just how much being a world champion means to them.
Geerts was back only three weeks after breaking his wrist with de Wolf hurting his ankle badly during the week and barely able to put weight on it. Geerts took ninth overall with De Wolf eleventh both keeping themselves in title contention. De Wolf is 17 points back of Adamo with Geerts 64 back.
| MX2 – GP Classification |
| 1. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 47 points; 2. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 42 p.; 3. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 38 p.; 4. Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, HUS), 32 p.; 5. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, KTM), 31 p.; 6. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), 30 p.; 7. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 25 p.; 8. Marcel Stauffer (AUT, KTM), 24 p.; 9. Jago Geerts (BEL, YAM), 22 p.; 10. Isak Gifting (SWE, GAS), 22 p.; 11. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 21 p.; 12. Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), 21 p.; 13. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 19 p.; 14. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, HON), 16 p.; 15. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 13 p.; 16. Mike Gwerder (SUI, KTM), 11 p.; 17. Petr Polak (CZE, YAM), 9 p.; 18. Peter Koenig (GER, KTM), 6 p.; 19. Bobby Bruce (GBR, GAS), 6 p.; 20. Devin Warner Simonson (USA, KTM), 3 p.; 21. Scott Smulders (NED, HON), 2 p.; 22. Lorenzo Ciabatti (ITA, KTM), 1 p.; 23. Arvid Lüning (SWE, GAS), 1 p.; 24. Francesco Bassi (ITA, KTM), 0 p.; 25. Jan Krug (GER, HUS), 0 p.; 26. Lorenzo Corti (ITA, HUS), 0 p.; 27. Delvintor Alfarizi (INA, HON), 0 p.; 28. William Voxen Kleemann (DEN, KTM), 0 p.; 29. Taylor Hammal (GBR, KTM), 0 p.; 30. Saad Soulimani (FRA, YAM), 0 p.; 31. Charlie Cole (GBR, KAW), 0 p.; 32. Yago Martinez (ESP, KTM), 0 p.; 33. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, KAW), 0 p.; 34. Jack Chambers (USA, KAW), 0 p.; |
| MX2 – World Championship Classification |
| 1. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 405 points; 2. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 392 p.; 3. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 388 p.; 4. Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, HUS), 345 p.; 5. Jago Geerts (BEL, YAM), 341 p.; 6. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 329 p.; 7. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 259 p.; 8. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 255 p.; 9. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, KAW), 232 p.; 10. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), 193 p.; 11. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, KTM), 170 p.; 12. Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), 137 p.; 13. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 136 p.; 14. Emil Weckman (FIN, HON), 97 p.; 15. Isak Gifting (SWE, GAS), 94 p.; 16. David Braceras (ESP, KAW), 79 p.; 17. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 72 p.; 18. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, HON), 46 p.; 19. Jack Chambers (USA, KAW), 44 p.; 20. Mike Gwerder (SUI, KTM), 43 p |
Report: Jonathan McCready
Image: Ray Archer