Jeffrey Herlings took an easy start-to-finish win in the MXGP qualification race today at St Jean d’Angely in France, his sixth in the past seven GPs.

The Dutchman stole the holeshot from Frenchmen Gautier Paulin and Romain Febvre, with Tony Cairoli just behind. Cairoli clashed with Clement Desalle who down hard, with the Italian managing to stay on board.

As Herlings pulled away, Gajser got past Febvre after he stalled his Yamaha. The HRC man was eventually passed back by Febvre then Cairoli, who sneaked past the Frenchman on the final lap after he made a mistake on one of the fierce downhills.

Gajser held on to fifth in front of Evgeny Bobryshev, with MAx Anstie ninth followed by fellow Brits Tommy Searle and Shaun Simpson. Graeme Irwin was 20th, one spot behind Desalle.

In the MX2 class, Thomas Covington broke the KTM stranglehold to take his Husky to the win, in front of Pauls Jonass and Jorge Prado.

It was a return to form for Briton Conrad Mewse who took fifth, with Ben Watson 12th after going down in the first corner and Josh Gilbert 19th.