Its Febvre, Herlings at the MXGP of France

Monster Energy Yamaha’s Romain Febvre wins in his home country; Jeffrey Herlings keeps on truckin’ at the MXGP of France.

In the same week that he renewed his contract with the Monster Energy Yamaha factory team for the FIM Motocross World Championship, reiging MXGP World Champion Romain Febvre showed his appreciation by scoring 2-1 moto finishes to win in front of his enthusiastic countrymen during round nine of the series at Circuit du Puy de Poursay in St. Jean d’ Angely, France, yesterday.

Febvre was a demon on the Circuit du Puy de Poursay’s steep uphills and long downhill jumps at the MXGP of France. He finished second in the first moto, less than one second behind curent points leader Tim Gajser of the Honda Gariboldi team after the two men pulled clear of the field to settle the battle for the moto win between themselves. Febvre did his best to keep Gasjer at bay, but the wiley Slovenian MXGP rookie managed to make a pass on Febvre with two laps to go and take the win by .610 of a second.

Febvre chose to change his strategy in the second moto and dog Gasjer, waiting for the right time to pass Gasjer. Once he did, he quickly made a pass for the lead and put time on Gasjer, winning the moto by 9.6 seconds and claiming his third overall win of the season. It was a nice thank you to Yamaha, which has signed Febvre to a new a contract that will keep him aboard the factory team through 2019.

“To celebrate my new contract by winning at home makes me very happy,” Febvre said. “I’d like to thank Yamaha with this victory today. To win a GP, especially the home GP, in front of the crowd is awesome. We had a good feeling in the morning and worked hard on the start for the track here at Saint Jean d’Angély. The mechanics and directors saw every detail in the paddock and every turn on the course, and we won this all together.”

Gasjer’s 1-2 finishes cemented second overall ahead of Team HRC’s Evgeny Bobryshev, who started the first moto fifth but improved to fourth, behind Red Bull KTM’s Antonio Cairoli, before the finish. Bobryshev got off to a better start in the second moto, but he was unable to match the pace set by Febvre and Gasjer, and he finished a lonely third.

Gasjer continues to hold the same lead over Febvre in the 2016 FIM MXGP series standings as he did at the previous round, 432-408, as they tied on points in France. However, both men eeked a little farther ahead of Cairoli, who finished fourth overall after carding a disappointing seventh-place finish in the second moto.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings was the model of cool after suffering poor starts in both MX2 motos. The Dutchman simply kept his head down and passed his way to the front in both, scoring two more moto wins to remain undefeated in the overall results through 10 rounds. Herlings’ win added another footnote to the history books as he tied GP legend Joel Smets’ record of 57 grand prix wins, and Herlings also made some history of his own as the first three-time grand prix winner at St. Jean d’Angely. He now leads the 2016 MX2 World Championship by a massive 134 points over Team Suzuki World MX2’s eremy Seewer.

Kemea Yamaha Official MX Team’s Benoit Paturel led almost every lap in the first moto, only to be passed by Herlings with two laps to go. Proving that it wasn’t a fluke, Paturel gave his countrymen more reason to cheer when he put together a solid ride for third place in the second moto as well. The net result was his second consecutive runner-up overall finish. Seewer finished third overall via 3-4 moto finishes.

Herlings has now amassed 497 championship points, 134 more than the next closest man, Seewer. The 2016 FIM Motocross World Championship resumes with round 11, the MXGP of Great Britain at Matterley Basin in England, June 18-19.

2016 FIM Motorcross World Championship
MXGP of France
Circuit du Puy de Poursay
St. Jean d’ Angely, France
Results: June 5, 2016 (Round 10 of 18)

MXGP
Moto 1
1. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 34:27.904
2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), +0:00.610
3. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +0:30.146
4. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:32.629
5. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, Yamaha), +0:33.644
6. Valentin Guillod (SUI, Yamaha), +0:34.752
7. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Husqvarna), +0:45.554
8. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:53.290
9. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), +1:00.223
10. Jordi Tixier (FRA, Kawasaki), +1:08.587

Moto 2
1. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), 34:12.917
2. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), +0:09.643
3. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), +0:40.344
4. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), +0:50.143
5. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM), +0:57.961
6. Dennis Ullrich (GER, KTM), +1:01.484
7. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM), +1:03.894
8. Valentin Guillod (SUI, Yamaha), +1:06.361
9. Tommy Searle (GBR, Kawasaki), +1:07.314
10. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Husqvarna), +1:07.815.

MXGP Overall
1. Romain Febvre (FRA, Yamaha), 47 points
2. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 47
3. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS, Honda), 38
4. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, KTM)
5. Clement Desalle (BEL, Kawasaki), 31
6. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, KTM)
7. Valentin Guillod (SUI, Yamaha), 28
8. Maximilian Nagl (GER, Husqvarna), 25
9. Jordi Tixier (FRA, Kawasaki), 21
10. Dennis Ullrich (GER, KTM), 19

2016 FIM MXGP World Championship Series Points Standings (after 10 of 18 rounds)
1. Tim Gajser-432/5 wins
2. Romain Febvre-408/3 wins
3. Antonio Cairoli-372/1 win
4. Maximilian Nagl-342
5. Evgeny Bobryshev-333
6. Jeremy Van Horebeek-293
7. Shaun Simpson-210
8. Valentin Guillod-208
9. Kevin Strijbos-204
10. Glenn Coldenhoff-184

MX2
Moto 1
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 35:23.550
2. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:05.794
3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), +0:20.716;
4. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, Yamaha), +0:29.759
5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +0:31.054
6. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:58.984
7. Samuele Bernardini (ITA, TM), +1:06.212
8. Conrad Mewse (GBR, Husqvarna), +1:09.192
9. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), +1:14.232
10. Thomas Covington (USA, Husqvarna), +1:17.675

Moto 2
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 35:03.580
2. Max Anstie (GBR, Husqvarna), +0:02.509
3. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), +0:10.217
4. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), +0:12.117
5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), +0:12.457
6. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), +0:24.525
7. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:36.326
8. Petar Petrov (BUL, Kawasaki), +0:39.605
9. Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS, Kawasaki), +0:50.409
10. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, Yamaha), +0:51.098

MX2 Overall
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 50 points
2. Benoit Paturel (FRA, Yamaha), 42
3. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Suzuki), 38
4. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KTM), 32
5. Dylan Ferrandis (FRA, Kawasaki), 29
6. Aleksandr Tonkov (RUS, Yamaha), 29
7. Brian Bogers (NED, KTM), 27
8. Samuele Bernardini (ITA, TM), 24
9. Max Anstie (GBR, Husqvarna), 22
10. Petar Petrov (BUL, Kawasaki), 20

2016 FIM MX2 World Championship Series Points Standings (after 10 of 18 rounds)
1. Jeffrey Herlings-497/10 wins
2. Jeremy Seewer-363;
3. Pauls Jonass-332
4. Benoit Paturel-293
5. Aleksandr Tonkov-269
6. Petar Petrov-230
7. Dylan Ferrandis-229
8. Samuele Bernardini-228
9. Max Anstie-227
10. Vsevolod Brylyakov-209