Antonio Cairoli dominates MX1 at the Benelux Grand Prix. Photography By: Ray Archer
Red Bull KTM’s Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings dominated the 14th round of the 2012 FIM Motocross World Championship after winning both motos in their respective classes at the Benelux Grand Prix in The Netherlands, September 2.
For Cairoli, it was his sixth MX1 GP win of the year and the 52nd of his career and is now poised to win his fourth MX1 World Championship. In Lierop’s deep sand, Cairoli won the first moto handedly but nearly threw it all away with a big crash while leading in the second moto. Luckily for him, he was not injured in the fall nor was his bike damaged, so he was able to get up and finish the race out in front.
He now leads Belgium’s Clement Desalle in the MX1 Championship by 76 points with two rounds remaining on the 2012 schedule. Desalle, who has been riding with an injured hand, finished sixth overall at Lierop.
Second overall on the day went to Cairoli’s Belgian teammate Ken de Dycker who posted 3-2 results.
Third overall was Estonia’s Tanel Leok (4-3, Suzuki), followed by Russia’s Evgeny Bobryshev (7-4, Honda) and Great Britain’s Shaun Simpson (8-5, Yamaha).
Christophe Pourcel retired from the first moto with a shoulder injury he suffered earlier. He did not ride the second moto.
The Netherlands’ own Herlings flat-out annihilated the MX2 class. The sand specialist lapped all but one rider – his Red Bull KTM teammate Jeremy van Horebeek – in the first moto and took the checkered flag just over two minutes ahead of Horebeek in the second moto.
Jeffery Herlings also won both of his motos in his class at the Dutch Grand Prix. Photography By: Ray Archer
Like Cairoli, Herlings is now on the verge of wrapping up the title in the MX2 Championship. Going into the final two rounds, Herlings leads Great Britain’s Tommy Searle by a fairly safe 65 points.
Searle (Kawasaki) went 4-4 in Lierop for fourth overall.
Great Britain’s Max Anstie joined Herlings and Horebeek on the MX2 podium after going 3-3 for third overall.
American Zach Osborne went 7-8 for ninth overall.
