Jeffrey Herlings’ debut for Honda HRC PETRONAS went perfectly on Sunday as the #84 took his 113th GP win with a dominant one-one performance that also saw him take the red-plate. After yesterday’s qualification race, where an unfortunate crash saw him finish outside the points, the maximum score of 50 points today meant he joint-leads the championship with teammate and fellow debutant Tom Vialle after his one-two-four results across the weekend. It is Herlings though that will takeover the red-plate from Vialle due winning the second moto, but both riders will head to Spain for round two, full of confidence.
For Herlings, an outside gate-pick meant his work would be a lot harder – in theory – but a rocket start on-board his Honda CRF450RW saw him take the holeshot in front of Vialle, making it an HRC one-two. Those positions swapped a few laps into the race as Herlings suffered from a bit of arm-pump and while Vialle tried to pull away, Herlings never let the gap get unmanageable and a few laps from the end, he re-passed the French rider and took the victory.
Race two didn’t start off as well, as he was bumped back to around 10th, but he made a bunch of passes in the first couple of laps to work his way forward and eventually up into second. The gap seemed insurmountable, and second would still have been good enough for the overall, but not the red-plate, so the #84 put his head down and once again made the pass for the lead near the end of the moto. A perfect day and a great start to his Honda HRC PETRONAS career and now he hopes to carry this momentum into Spain in a couple of weeks’ time.
Vialle can also be very happy with his weekend, after his two-four motos today that included leading laps in both races. Battling with Herlings in race one and then once again grabbing an excellent start in the second moto meant that he really has got to grips with the Honda CRF450RW is very quick time. Scoring 50 points over the weekend is an excellent tally and while he wasn’t sure where he’d place coming into this round, he now knows he is very much a challenger for the rest of the season.
While he wasn’t pleased with his performance in race one, Ruben Fernandez bounced back in race two and showed that he will also fight for the podium positions throughout this campaign after a fifth placed finish. Things could have been even better as the #70 was in second-position before the red-flag restart, but he put in another solid moto after that and ended up sixth overall in the GP and eight in the championship, with his home GP coming up.
Unfortunately Valerio Lata had a nasty crash in race two, landing on a fellow rider in the chaos of the first two turns. Thankfully the young Italian only has bumps and bruises so he should still be able to line-up in Spain, but he wasn’t the outcome the #18 was after, especially since he finished eighth in the first moto.
Almonte, Spain is another new venue for the series so the riders won’t know exactly what to expect on March 21-22, but after leading all MXGP sessions in Argentina, all the members of Honda HRC PETRONAS will be heading there with renewed confidence that they are very much amongst the best riders on the planet and this second round will give them another opportunity to show it.
