Jeffrey Herlings stands on the brink of his first title in the MXGP class and the fourth of his career after his thirteenth 1-1 victory of the season at the Afyon Motorsports Centre in Turkey.
The Afyon Motorsports centre made an FIM World Championship ‘debut’ this weekend for the first Grand Prix in Turkey since 2009. The course was hard-packed, wide, fast and rough in sections that made for some relentless racing in hot and sunny conditions in front of 15,000 spectators (weekend figure). The fixture was the third in three weeks for the MXGP paddock and the eighteenth round of twenty in the 2018 campaign.
The 23 year old Dutchman controlled proceedings in the opening moto with his KTM 450 SX-F after winning the Qualification Heat for the eleventh time on Saturday. Herlings faced some competition for the lead deep into the second moto from 2016 champion Tim Gajser but maintained his speed in the final minutes to again take the chequered flag. Herlings has won the last 7 Grands Prix in a row, 11 from the last 12 and has not been defeated for the last 13 motos.
Herlings now has a margin of 95 points over world champion Toni Caroli with just 100 left to win in events in Holland and Italy.
The Sicilian was 8th overall. He scored a strong runner-up to Herlings in the first moto despite clipping one of the trackside bridges and sustaining a cut and bang to his right hand. A crash in the opening phases of the second moto cast #222 to the back of the field but he postponed an early party for Herlings by riding back to 15th position.
