MXGP Race Reports

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MXGP of Turkey Report

Published Sunday, 5th September, 2021

After a short summer break for the riders, the MXGP paddock headed to the East to contest Round 8 of the 2021 season.

By the end of the day, it was Jeffrey Herlings who did enough to secure overall victory of the weekend, ending off with a 1-2 result to kickstart his second part of the campaign.

With a 6-1 result in the GP of Turkey, Tim Gajser’s championship lead remains unchanged with 13 points separating the HRC rider and Jorge Prado.

MXGP Race 1

The first race of the day’s action saw Jorge Prado take the Fox Holeshot to lead ahead of Glenn Coldenhoff and Romain Febvre.

After running in fourth at the start, Pauls Jonass quickly dropped down to sixth as both Gajser and Herlings made their way past the GasGas Factory rider after a close battle on the first lap.

But it was a tale of two ends for Herlings and Gajser, with the former breezing past Coldenhoff as the latter couldn’t find a way around the Dutchman for 10 laps of the race.

Gajser’s race didn’t get any better from then on as Antonio Cairoli quickly made his way past the Slovenian. To make matters worse for the championship leader, Cairoli quickly dispatched of Coldenhoff, something Gajser had failed to do for a large part of the race.

But on lap 11 a moment finally appeared for Gajser who managed to slip past the Yamaha of Coldenhoff and take sixth, where he remained for the rest of the race.

Back at the front, Herlings continued his charge to victory, passing both Febvre and Prado withing two laps, on lap 13 and lap 15 respectively.

Jonass also managed to steal the final podium place from Febvre with just three laps to go, meaning the top-three at the end were Herlings, Prado and Jonass.

Febvre crossed the line in fourth place ahead of Cairoli and Gajser, with Jeremy Seewer getting the better of Coldenhoff in seventh and eighth.

Henry Jacobi and Thomas Kjer Olsen rounded out the top-10.

MXGP Race 2

Just like the first race, it was Prado who took the Fox Holeshot and led the field away in the final race of the day, with Febvre and Gajser rounding out the top-three on the first lap.

It wasn’t the best start for Race One winner Herlings who struggled off the line and found himself in seventh place with progress to be made.

The Dutchman did just that, passing Coldenhoff and quickly moving on to the back of Cairoli.

After a third-place finish in the first race, the same was not to be for Jonass who had a big crash whilst fighting for fourth with Cairoli, the Latvian could not finish the race but was fortunately OK.

Prado’s lead from the start came to an end on lap 9, when Gajser made his way past after a good battle between the two championship rivals.

There was then some drama in the closing stages as the charging Cairoli made contact with Prado, the pair remained on the bikes, but the Italian fell down shortly after.

This allowed Herlings to make his way through to third and quickly caught up to Prado, passing the Spaniard on the final lap to seal overall victory of the weekend.

Nobody could touch Gajser out in front who took the Race Two win by 4.654s, with Herlings and Prado rounding out the top-three.

Febvre crossed the line in fourth place ahead of Cairoli, Alessandro Lupino and Seewer.

Calvin Vlaanderen ended his race in eighth, with Kevin Strijbos and Brent Van Doninck finishing ninth and 10th.