Image: Supplied.

A costly DNF in the opening moto at Germany’s seventh MXGP round saw title contender Jeffrey Herlings surrender valuable points to rival Lucas Coenen, with the Dutchman admitting he was ‘not happy’ following Sunday’s result.

The Honda HRC Petronas rider entered Teutschenthal aiming to halt the momentum of Coenen following the Belgian’s victory in France, however, those hopes were dashed when a technical issue forced him out of the opening MXGP moto.

Although he rallied to P2 in race two, a 1-1 scorecard from Red Bull KTM’s Coenen – combined with a third-place finish in Saturday’s qualification race – saw Herlings concede 29 points across the weekend, with the gap now 31 entering Latvia.

“Obviously not happy with today,” said Herlings. “I wanted to keep the pressure on in the championship battle, and now I’ve dropped a lot of points today. Germany definitely hasn’t been my friend it seems in recent years.

“But we go again in Latvia next week and just keep pushing hard – [there’s] still plenty of racing to go and I like Kegums a lot more than here.”

Honda HRC Petronas was also without Tom Vialle in Germany, with the 25-year-old continuing to recover following a first-turn incident in France. The team has indicated that Vialle is in a race against time to be fit for this weekend’s MXGP of Latvia.