Source: Supplied.

Red Bull KTM’s Jeffrey Herlings entered the Valkenswaard MXGP round off the back of seven-straight MX2 victories at the venue and managed to score a first-career premier class podium on Sunday.

Herlings has endured a difficult start to the season so far in 2017, but managed a 3-3 result in the Netherlands for third overall, bumping him up to eighth in the championship standings.

“I’ve been winning here seven years in a row and even though things haven’t been going well lately, I think the fans still expected a podium and that’s what we did,” Herlings said. “I felt like we were close to the win. We had a really bad start to the season with the broken hand and we were riding but we weren’t really riding and I just went from GP to GP – I felt terrible.

“I was in positions I shouldn’t be in and I even felt embarrassed, but now I’ve been on the bike a few weeks so we can work on being better and better and get back in the shape where we should be.

“I didn’t expect these guys to be so fast and it is like all-out war from the moment the gate drops to the finish flag and it is something we haven’t been used to. But we are getting back the speed and we just need to get those starts together.”