Written by: Geoff Meyer
The Easter Sunday qualification races in Valkenswaard have pretty much turned out as expected as MX1 and MX2 favorites Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings of the Red Bull KTM Factory team won their respective races. Both won with time to spare and will not enter Mondays races with huge confidence.
Cairoli didn’t have it his own way early in the MX1 moto as Steven Frossard led from Kevin Strijbos. Slowly Cairoli caught the two leaders and once in the lead the Italian cruised to his first win of the 2012 season. Second place some 8 seconds back was Clement Desalle and third was Frossard.
Former World MX2 Champion Christophe Pourcel finished a disappointing 16th, while his brother Sebastien was 19th. Honda Factory rider Evgeny Bobryshev failed to finish after cruising to the pits on lap one and Shaun Simpson who showed good speed early only to finish in 13th place.
Herlings had to come back from a bad start to work his way into the lead. Early leader Jake Nicholls looked strong, leading for five laps, but seemed to hit the wall at half way point and dropped from first place to fourth, still a great result for the British rider.
Herlings who entered the opening lap in 8th place moved into the lead on lap seven and then eventually won by 25 seconds. Jeremy Van Horebeek finished second after a solid rider and Tommy Searle came through from 6th on the first lap to finish in third place.
Cairoli comments
I know it’s the first race, everybody is over excited and everyone is going fast. I like this track. Tomorrow it will be a good race the track will be rough, it’s nice. I didn’t have problems today, just messed up the start, I need to work on that for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be hard, a lot of bumps, I am not over excited, it’s just the beginning of the championship, I want another good season. Winning is important, but like I said, my goal is to win the Championship and I will try and work on the mistakes I made last year. I lost some confidence early in last season now I want to start slowly and work it up. The off-season went good, we had some good races in the Italian Championship with Frossard and Philippaerts, our bike is working well and I feel good, training harder and harder as the season goes on. For sure the KTM engine is great, they did an awesome job to get it better. I thought about riding the 450, because in some circuits I didn’t have the power, but now the 350 has extra power. You can’t see it here, but you will see it in Bulgaria and some other races. That new big jump it’s not so risky and it is nice for the public.
Herlings comments
My start was not good. I was on the inside gate and Tommy was next to me and he went too early and I was shocked and also tried to go and got caught and my start was terrible. I got up to fifth on the first lap, but Pocock crashed into me and I crashed again, then after 5 laps I showed good speed and was like 4 or 5 seconds faster than the other guys. I am confident and it’s cool to race for your home public and I hope to be good tomorrow and I think if I don’t crash I can get two moto wins and to home with the red plate. You know from KTM’s side they want a World Champion and its up to me to do it. Speed wise I have the best speed and on the hard packs I can also be quick. I can get many wins it doesn’t matter what track it is. I feel strong and the bike is good, we did a lot of testing in the winter and I think we will have the best set-up possible soon.
Searle comments
The first race of the year, and it’s in the sand, I didn’t grow up in it. I came here to do my best, but looking forward to the next race. If you look at Cairoli last year he had a bad first round and came back. I am always confident, I am riding well at the moment. I came over and raced the Dutch Championship and the team is dutch based. I didn’t get a good start, everyone knows Jeffrey is fast around here and I can’t get to his speed around here, but I can get on the podium. I came into this the same as every year. We have a big advantage with the bikes, but when we get on the hard stuff I want to be on the podium also every weekend and in Bulgaria I will be ready to win and I think there will be big battles between Jeffrey and I.
Results – Sunday Qualification
MX1 Qualification race:
1. Antonio Cairoli (KTM) 2. Clement Desalle (Suz) 3. Steven Frossard (Yam) 4. David Philippaerts (Yam) 5. Kevin Strijbos (KTM) 6. Ken De Dycker (KTM) 7. Gautier Paulin (Kaw) 8. Tanel Leok (Suz) 9. Xavier Boog (Kaw) 10. Rui Goncalves (Hon)
MX2 Qualification race:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (KTM) 2. Jeremy Van Horebeek (KTM) 3. Tommy Searle (Kaw) 4. Jake Nicholls (KTM) 5. Jose Butron (KTM) 6. Max Anstie (Hon) 7. Joel Roelants (Kaw) 8. Valentin Teillet (Kaw) 9. Alexander Tonkov (Hon). 10. Jordi Tixier (KTM)
