Jorge Prado left China with the red plate with a 2-1 score after a disastrous first moto for Tim Gajser that saw the Slovenian crash twice then ride around with a broken footpeg for the final few laps and Romain Febvre took the moto win.
In race two it was man v man for the title with Prado taking the holeshot and Gajser second. But Prado was perfect under pressure and never let Gajser get close enough to get a wheel win as he took the win with a thre second gap – but this was everything Prado had in the heat, he left it all on the track for the world title!
Prado now heads to Spain, his home GP, with a seven point lead and the chance to defend his MXGP title and become a four time world champ all in front of his home crowd before he moves to the States!
Prado was so tired he couldn’t even do the immediate post race interview until after his podium, such was the effort to win a key race in the championship.
Herlings said: “For me the championship already coming into this was kind of over, it wasn’t just Tim who needed to make the mistake it was also Jorge. Unfortunately I had a big burn on my arm from Turkey which gives me a lot of pain and also i broke two ribs and today was quite a lot of pain. I was good with any result, easy going. Especially that second moto, I knew I would be on the podium, just wanted to go home safe.”
Febvre said: “It was really tough, everybody gave all. First moto I gave maybe too much, I wanted that win and it happenend, so pretty happy. There was not so much break between the motos which didn’t help recovery. I didn’t get the start and had a long fight with Fernandez, I was third a little bit alone. A good GP, happy to be back on the box.
In MX2 Lucas Coenen won both motos to keep his slim chances of a world title alive bit it was Karlin Reisulis who almost won his first moto leading for over 20 minutes before crashing out of the lead in race two in a brilliant ride!
Coenen led from the front in race one after holding off Laengenfelder but had to run down an aggressive Laengenfelder and De Wolf to make a late race charge to win the second moto. But en route to that win was a clash with Liam Everts which left the Belgian needing medical attention with Coenen apologising in hos post race interview, saying he lost his concentration mid-race when he saw Everts still down after the contact with Stefan on the scene. Let’s hope Liam is okay.
See the highlights below:
