No two racers were more popular and more supported by fans today than Tim Gajser and Antonio Cairoli, so when the two World Champions went head-to-head this afternoon, the atmosphere reached fever pitch.
The first race of the afternoon was business as usual for Gajser, as he launched from the start to a holeshot on the CRF450RW, resisted pressure from Max Nagl, built an early lead and romped home to his 12th moto victory.
Race two though was when the fireworks really started. The GT243 fans were out in force, and numbered almost as many as Cairoli’s home fans, so when the two came round the first corner in first and second the atmosphere erupted. Cairoli lead and Gajser gave chase, and for most of the moto the gap was just one second.
Tim rode a tactically brilliant race. He stalked Cairoli, chasing him down and lining up his moves. Cairoli countered the first two moves, launching himself back ahead of the Slovenian. Each time Tim regrouped, stalked and came back again, and with just five minutes remaining made the decisive move.
As soon as #243 was ahead of the Italian, he put the hammer down and within a lap the gap was 2.8seconds ahead to record another perfect Sunday and take Grand Prix victory number seven.
Jorge Zaragoza enjoyed another two of his customary strong starts today, launching into fifth position in race one and taking the holeshot in race two, from where he was able to run in the top three for the opening laps. Unfortunately a finger injury combined with the sweltering heat meant that, ultimately, he was unable to finish the race and ended nine laps down.
Tim Gajser, no.243
“It’s just been an amazing day today. In the first race I made life easy for myself with the holeshot and then I could make a little gap and control the race. In the second race it was different. Toni was pushing really hard until the finish and I think we were both so tired at the end because we both really wanted to win in front of our fans. Every time I made a move he came back at me and I was almost ready to settle for second, but I thought ‘give it one more try’ and that time I could make it stick and pull away enough.
“I’m so so happy to have taken that win and the overall victory here. It feels like a home GP again because of all the fans and all the support here, and I’m so thankful that motocross in Slovenia is growing and more and more people are getting interested in it. I want to thank the team for the job they did this weekend because it was incredible. We’ve been dreaming of races like this and now it’s all coming true. It’s a special win that I will remember. I really want to watch it back on the TV now to see how exciting it was for everyone else!”
Jorge Zaragoza, no.101
“I got two good starts today, especially in the second race when I was right at the front. That was a good race at the beginning as I was third fastest, and I was able to pass Tonkov for third place on-track. Unfortunately then I injured my finger and I couldn’t ride the way I wanted to, and with the pain I couldn’t finish the race so it was a really disappointing way to end this weekend. Now we need to focus in the break on Loket and coming back strongly there.”
Giacomo Gariboldi, Team Principal
“Wow, that was really an incredible race today! You could see that Tim really wanted that win. He could have settled for second behind Cairoli and still won the GP, but that’s not his way and we saw that very clearly in the second race. He was so determined, and rode a very clever race, giving it his all but riding very smartly. The atmosphere too was just fantastic with all the fans and two such popular riders. The team have done a really great job this weekend working so hard on the bike, but the feeling is just perfect when the result is like this and after such a fantastic race.”
