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MXGP Indonesia: Herlings fights the pain to win qualifying race

Jeffrey Herlings (Red Bull KTM) shrugged off the pain of a plated collarbone to win today’s qualification race at the MXGP of Indonesia – round 12 of the FIM Motocross World Championship – at Pangkal Pinang.

The 23-year-old, who broke his collarbone in a practice crash two-and-a-half weeks ago, chased his team-mate and main championship rival Tony Cairoli through the opening turn in the 20-minute plus two lap moto before taking the lead a couple of corners later.

From there he checked out and at one point led by over eight seconds before backing it off in the closing stages to conserve energy for tomorrow’s two points-paying races.

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“I’m not fit but that’s normal – I broke my collarbone less than 17 days ago and it was pretty shattered,” said Herlings. “So to come back racing it’s already a blessing and then to win is even more so.

“I couldn’t go full gas because I felt like I’ve lost some fitness and also some bike time and I didn’t want to take any risks today. It obviously won’t be that easy tomorrow but today was a good day.”

After Herlings passed Cairoli the defending champion overshot the turn following the waves section and went off the track which allowed Gautier Paulin (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna), Glenn Coldenhoff (Red Bull KTM), Clement Desalle (Monster Energy Kawasaki) and Tim Gajser (Team HRC) through.

Paulin held onto second for five laps and was then gifted some breathing room when Coldenhoff fell but Gajser was on a charge and the 2016 world champion caught and passed the Frenchman just before half-distance. However, the Slovenian appeared to have over-exerted himself in the hot and humid conditions and the following lap he lost places to Paulin, Cairoli and Desalle.

Cairoli and Desalle then moved ahead of Paulin as Britain’s Max Anstie (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) and Romain Febvre (Monster Energy Yamaha) pushed Gajser back to seventh.

With three laps to go Anstie tipped over in a turn and lost valuable places as Cairoli chased down Herlings but the Italian couldn’t close the gap and at the flag it was the Dutchman who won by just over three seconds. Desalle was third form Paulin, Febvre, Gajser and Coldenhoff with Anstie best of the Brits in 12th.

Shaun Simpson (Wilvo Yamaha) won here last year and the Scot was as high as eighth on the opening lap before he faded back to 16th. With the Hitachi ASA KTM UK team opting not to make the long and expensive journey with Graeme Irwin, the only other British rider in action was Tommy Searle (Bike It DRT Kawasaki) but he went out at half-distance.

MXGP Indonesia qualifying race result

1    84    Herlings, Jeffrey    NED     KNMV    KTM    24:01.609    13    0:00.000    0:00.000    1:45.914    1    51.6
2    222    Cairoli, Antonio    ITA     FMI    KTM    24:04.636    13    0:03.027    0:03.027    1:48.008    12    50.6
3    25    Desalle, Clement    BEL     FMB    Kawasaki    24:10.619    13    0:09.010    0:05.983    1:48.425    3    50.4
4    21    Paulin, Gautier    FRA     MCM    Husqvarna    24:19.207    13    0:17.598    0:08.588    1:48.332    2    50.5
5    461    Febvre, Romain    FRA     FFM    Yamaha    24:28.784    13    0:27.175    0:09.577    1:48.298    4    50.5
6    243    Gajser, Tim    SLO     AMZS    Honda    24:30.478    13    0:28.869    0:01.694    1:47.721    3    50.7
7    259    Coldenhoff, Glenn    NED     KNMV    KTM    24:38.881    13    0:37.272    0:08.403    1:48.411    2    50.4
8    91    Seewer, Jeremy    SUI     FMS    Yamaha    24:40.686    13    0:39.077    0:01.805    1:49.938    7    49.7
9    89    Van Horebeek, Jeremy    BEL     FMB    Yamaha    24:42.490    13    0:40.881    0:01.804    1:49.854    3    49.8
10    33    Lieber, Julien    BEL     FMB    Kawasaki    24:44.901    13    0:43.292    0:02.411    1:49.708    4    49.8
11    12    Nagl, Maximilian    GER     DMSB    TM    24:48.151    13    0:46.542    0:03.250    1:51.076    2    49.2
12    99    Anstie, Max    GBR     ACU    Husqvarna    24:54.448    13    0:52.839    0:06.297    1:48.445    3    50.4
13    77    Lupino, Alessandro    ITA     FMI    Kawasaki    24:56.406    13    0:54.797    0:01.958    1:51.278    8    49.1
14    777    Bobryshev, Evgeny    RUS     MFR    Suzuki    24:58.418    13    0:56.809    0:02.012    1:51.082    4    49.2
15    27    Jasikonis, Arminas    LTU     LMSF    Honda    25:08.729    13    1:07.120    0:10.311    1:52.640    5    48.5
16    24    Simpson, Shaun    GBR     ACU    Yamaha    25:11.871    13    1:10.262    0:03.142    1:51.540    3    49
17    22    Strijbos, Kevin    BEL     FMB    KTM    25:15.903    13    1:14.294    0:04.032    1:51.289    3    49.1
18    42    Waters, Todd    AUS     MA    Honda    25:19.573    13    1:17.964    0:03.670    1:52.177    2    48.7
19    92    Guillod, Valentin    SUI     FMS    KTM    25:21.577    13    1:19.968    0:02.004    1:51.064    3    49.2
20    336    Stewart, Lewis     AUS     IMI    Husqvarna    24:49.856    12    1 lap     1 lap    1:59.952    5    45.6
21    705    Hanif Kusparwanto, Rizky    INA     IMI    Husqvarna    25:05.359    11    2 laps    1 lap    2:09.309    2    42.3
22    701    Sondakh, Andre    INA     IMI    KTM    25:12.480    11    2 laps    0:07.121    2:04.890    1    43.8
23    162    Hendro, Farhan    INA     IMI    Husqvarna    26:05.278    11    2 laps    0:52.798    2:13.884    4    40.8
24    100    Searle, Tommy    GBR     ACU    Kawasaki    11:39.173    6    7 laps    5 laps    1:50.618    3    49.4
25    288    Lazaroni, Aldi    INA     IMI    Husqvarna    11:40.519    5    8 laps    1 lap    2:12.260    3    41.3

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