Jeffrey Herlings crashed hard in the first corner of the Italian championship opener and did not ride again. He landed hard on his shoulder and got run over but walked back to the pits at Riola Sardo in Sardinia. He didn’t ride again but it was because he wasn’t in the top 20 in the race, so didn’t qualify for the Superfinal. He says he’s not injured and therefore will be OK for the Hawkstone International at the weekend.

Herlings said: “Little start crash. Some riders rode over me and the bike, and  the bike the bike got some damage so that I couldn’t restart the race. And as I wasn’t in the top 20, I was not allowed to race the Superfinal. Further more everything is fine. Big thanks to the team for the great bike and work. Let’s keep on working.”

World champ Tony Cairoli won the MX1 race and the Superfinal. Max Anstie was second both times out. He stayed with Cairoli for the majority of the first moto but dropped back in the end. In the Superfinal he overtook the world champ but couldn’t stay in front as the Italian squeezed by to take the win.

Anstie said: “I’m really pleased with my performance for the day. Together with the team, I feel we’ve done quite well in the off-season. We’ve worked on some new set-ups and overall I’m really looking forward to the new season. Here in Sardinia I had a good day of racing and we managed to make some improvements. It was awesome to battle with Tony [Cairoli] in both motos. This event helped us see where we’re at and our goal now is to continue making progress ahead of the MXGP season. Overall, it was a nice, solid day of racing.”

Romain Febvre took third in the Superfinal from his Yamaha team-mate Jeremy Van Horebeek and Husky’s Gautier Paulin. MX2 world champ Pauls Jonass took sixth from Tanel Leok and Glenn Coldenhoff.

In the MX1 race, Cairoli won from Anstie with VanHorebeek third, in front of Paulin, Febvre and Shaun Simpson.

Honda’s Hunter Lawrence won the MX2 race after leader Jonass wiped out. He remounted to take second place from Honda man Calvin Vlaanderen and Alvin Ostlund. Ben Watson finished 35th in his Yamaha team debut.

MX1 results

MX2

Superfinal