Herlings sensational, Vialle a standout rookie: big day for Honda in MXGP

Honda triumphs in Argentina with its new stars: Herlings wins the GP, Vialle 2nd, champion Febvre completes the podium. Report and standings.

First outing with Honda, first GP triumph with a double moto win. What more can be said about the extraordinary Jeffrey Herlings? With zero points yesterday in qualifying, he completely put the hiccups behind him and stamped his mark in his own way on the Bariloche round. Dominance in Race 1, a comeback on champion Romain Febvre and a final triumph in Race 2, in which Tim Gajser grabs his first podium with Yamaha. The expected riders did not disappoint, but let’s add the wonderful surprise Tom Vialle, a rookie starting from pole in MXGP and 2nd overall, to the delight of Honda HRC Petronas, which kicks off with a one-two in the overall. Our Andrea Adamo, the best of the Italians at this GP, begins his 450 adventure with two top-10 finishes. Note, a sandy track with plenty of water poured both yesterday and before the races to make the surface more “forgiving.” After yesterday’s twists and turns (here are the qualifiers), here’s how Sunday’s racing in Argentina went.

Gate drops and Jeffrey Herlings takes the lead: after the pile-up in the first corner, the former KTM rider, coming off a complicated qualifying, is out for payback. Adamo and Vialle follow, with the latter soon getting the better of the Italian as he aims to challenge his teammate. Great launch by Bonacorsi in 5th behind reigning champion Febvre, Coenen meanwhile loses several positions and Gajser sits on the edge of the top 10. After a few laps the duel at the front between the two Honda HRC aces heats up! Vialle gets the upper hand and checks out for at least a few laps. Herlings seems to be closing in, an error allows Febvre and Coenen (who had crashed earlier) to move up, but only for a moment. The Dutchman charges back, and in the last three laps he makes the decisive attack and break: first triumph with Honda—actually an HRC one-two with the Frenchman in P2—while champion Febvre claws back to third. Noted: a crash and retirement for Bonacorsi, a real shame as he was holding his first top 10 with Ducati...

Lightning start this time from the Kawasakis, especially Febvre who immediately takes the lead. Fernandez, Adamo and Vialle follow, while Herlings is 13th. Guadagnini retires straight away, Ducati loses Vlaanderen, and eyes now on Bonacorsi aiming for the top 10. But on lap 2 comes the red flag, everything stops, and we can clearly see what happened at the start: Forato jumped early because the gate dropped prematurely, while two other riders were blocked by gates that stayed up despite the go signal. A few minutes and a restart for everyone from the original order: another hectic launch, until Vialle edges out Renaux, Febvre, Gajser, Fernandez, Herlings, Adamo and so on. There’s also an early pile-up, with Forato among those involved... As the laps go by, however, the champion climbs back and takes the lead, Renaux crashes, while Gajser gets very close to his first podium with Yamaha and finally wrests it from Vialle. Is that it? Absolutely not—watch out for a rampant Jeffrey Herlings who decides 2nd isn’t enough: he marches back up to Febvre, passes him and takes his second win of the day, sealing the overall GP victory. There couldn’t have been a better debut with Honda!