Everyone loves the underdog, and it might sound pretty crazy, considering the Red Bull KTM factory rider, Jeffrey Herlings is just that, the underdog. Surprising, because he just went 1-1-2-1-1-1 in Indonesia and is clearly finding his best speed.

The reason he is the underdog though, is the fact he is more than a Grand Prix in points behind another five time World champion, Tim Gajser (51 points) and the Slovenian, who owns the red plate in the middle of this very interesting season, has been the most consistent rider in the MXGP class and doesn’t show any signs of that changing.

For Herlings to become World MXGP champion in 2024, he would not only need to win a lot of the remaining GPs, but also hope Gasjer finishes worse than second or third.

Let me give you an example, if Herlings won every single moto from now on, and gained 60 points per GP (Saturday and Sunday points), Herlings would end up with 480 points from the last eight rounds, which would be maximum points and nearly impossible to achieve.

If Gajser finished lets say, second in every moto until the end of the year, he would end up with 424 points, the advantage for Herlings in those final eight rounds would be 56 points. The current lead by Gajser is 51 points. So, as I mentioned, Herlings would need to be nearly perfect until the final round to win by five points, unless Gajser suffers a mechanical failure or worse and nobody wants him to get hurt.

Now, the chance of Herlings winning every single moto, is a lot less than Gajser finishing second in every moto, because until now, the HRC man has finished second on 17 occasions out of 36 races and on nine times he has won the moto. That is top two in 26 of the 36 races run so far. Throw in some top threes and it is little surprise he holds the red plate with a large points gap.

As much as Herlings is on a roll, he really needs Gajser to start to suffer from the pressure and for me, that is the Slovenian's strength, his willingness to take the pressure and bottle it for success.

Not to mention, Herlings would also need defending champion Jorge Prado to play his part, and we all know, he could easily beat both these men, if he can once again start his own climb to Gajser. Prado would need to make up major points on Gajser and hold off the recent charge by Herlings to be World champion.

Herlings is 17 points behind the Spaniard and while Prado won the opening in Indonesia and finished off the podium in Lombok II, I would be picking him to win in Loket next week, as he enjoys that circuit and both Gajser and Herlings don't like that track and have at times struggled there.

Anyway, legendary Grand Prix photographer, Ray Archer shot some cool images of “The Underdog” last weekend and we present them here on MXlarge.