Tim Gajser fought his way onto the podium today after two nail-biting races which were equally exhilarating for different reasons for the Honda Gariboldi team.
Gajser came into today looking strong, and backed up yesterday’s pace with second in the morning warm-up session. In the race, it was set to be a battle of the World Champions between he and Antonio Cairoli as the duo emerged from the gate first and second.
Unfortunately, a mistake on the opening lap sent Tim over the bars as he landed in one of the track’s many holes. On the ground at the head of the pack, he was lucky to avoid being struck by any other riders, and when he emerged he was in 30th position.
Head down, he set about gathering himself and mounting a charge back though the field. Despite the deep ruts that made passing very difficult, by the end of the first lap GT243 was back up to 22nd, and he continued progressing at pace to take the flag in ninth, rescuing twelve championship points.
In race two, it was once again business as normal. Gajser took the holeshot, although he ran wide on the exit of turn one and let Cairoli up the inside. He again gave chase, and this time GT243 was going to come out on top. Despite intense pressure from first Cairoli and then Romain Febvre, Gajser didn’t miss a beat and romped home to his 15th moto win of the season.
Headed into the MXGP of The Netherlands in two weeks, which represents the European finale to the season before the final pair of races in the USA, Gajser now leads the championship by 99 points. This means that the Slovenian superstar needs just one more point than closest rival Cairoli in Assen to secure his maiden MXGP World Championship crown.
Tim Gajser, no.243
“In the first moto I took a good start and was right there with Cairoli and Paulin and preparing my pass for the lead, but then I closed the front in a rut and went down. It was hard without everyone coming past me so I had to wait for almost everyone to pass before I could pick the bike up again. Fortunately it was still running so I could get going easily, and then I was pushing really hard. It’s difficult to pass here because of the nature of the track and the long ruts. We could see that the speed was there, but I wasn’t happy with ninth.
“The second race was much better as I took the holeshot, but then went too much to the outside so Cairoli came past me. When I made the pass Toni was pushing me hard, and then Febvre was too, so we had some good racing. I’m really glad to be on the podium, especially after the mistake in the first race. Now there are three races left this season, and we still have a good lead. Honestly we don’t change anything because the best way to keep doing what we are is to continue as we have been all season, but yes we do start to think a little bit more about the championship now…!”
Chihiro Notsuka, no.281
“The races were hard today because the track changed since yesterday so it was different for me again, but I also learned a lot. We didn’t hit our objective of championship points, but we did run in the top 20 for a time. Overall this weekend has been a great experience and it has shown me a lot, riding in the world championship with all these guys at such a high level. I’m very grateful to Honda and HRC for this weekend.”
Giacomo Gariboldi, Team Principal
“Today was a fantastic result for Tim and it was great to be on the podium again. It was definitely a race of two halves today because in the first round Tim had to ride hard to find the lines to come back from nearly the back of the field to break into the top ten, but I think then that some of the lines he was finding were then a big help to him in race two with Cairoli and Febvre. Then he resisted great pressure from both of those guys, both World Champions, to stay ahead and take another great moto win. To turn the two races around so much shows again how strong Tim is in the head, and why he’s had such a dominant year in MXGP in his rookie season.”