Honda Gariboldi Racing’s Tim Gajser fought both the competition and the elements in Leon today, battling the deep mud to continue his strong run of form and take second overall at the MXGP of Mexico.
In doing so, the Slovenian ensured that he keeps hold of the coveted red plate on his CRF250RW, extending his lead of the MX2 World Championship to 18 points with just one round remaining.
Whilst it didn’t rain today, storms overnight left the track soaked this morning and disrupted the day’s running. Gajser ventured out on track for a handful of laps in the delayed morning warm-up session, and by the first race it was still a mud bath that turned the result into something of a lottery. Despite a crash in which he was forced to jettison his goggles, Gajser crossed the line a valiant fifth.
By the second race the burning sun had dried much of the soft mud, and combined with a lot of preparation work to the track, it was a totally different affair. After a good start, Tim was forced to take evasive action when a rider crashed in front of him, but then found himself at home on the now harder surface and scrambled back to second to take second overall.
Giacomo Gariboldi, Team Principal
“This was a very difficult weekend for everyone because of the conditions, especially in the first race, but I think Tim managed it very well and he’s been rewarded by coming out of it with a bigger championship lead. Consistency is the key and again he was on the podium. He’s keeping his head and riding well, which at this point in the season is so important as the championship will be won by the rider who makes the fewest mistakes. There’s one more race this season, next weekend in the USA, so we hope to continue our momentum throughout that weekend.”
Tim Gajser, no.243
“The weekend was really tough. We had all different kinds of terrain from deep mud to soft mud to then pretty hard in the second race, which for me was actually quite perfect. They moved the mud off the track and there were many lines so you could have a good race. I’m a little disappointed with the first race. The key was the start because there was so much mud and just one line, but fifth wasn’t so bad. In the second race I almost went down at the start because Jonass crashed in front of me but I could save it. Then I could make some nice passes and come back to second which was great. I enjoyed the riding today – maybe the first 15minutes I was not so much focused, but in the second half of the second moto I found some really nice lines and my riding was better. Serizawa-san and the HRC engineers made a good map for the bike today so I’d like to thank them for their hard work.
“We have one GP left now so two heats, and definitely I have to be focused 110 per cent, even more than I have been now. We cannot make mistakes now. It’s the final GP and it’s good to have a little points gap but anything can happen so we will go there and do the same as every race and just try and have fun. It’s hard to not think about the championship, but I am really focused on each race as it comes.”
Overall results
| 1 | Thomas Covington | Kawasaki | 43pts |
| 2 | Tim Gajser | Honda | 38pts |
| 3 | Benoit Paturel | Yamaha | 36pts |
| 4 | Pauls Jonass | KTM | 33pts |
| 5 | Max Anstie | Kawasaki | 32pts |
| 6 | Valentin Guillod | Yamaha | 29pts |
| 7 | Calvin Vlaanderen | KTM | 29pts |
| 8 | Harri Kullas | Husqvarna | 28pts |
| 9 | Julien Lieber | Yamaha | 27pts |
| 10 | Jeremy Seewer | Suzuki | 27pts |
| DNS | Jorge Zaragoza | HONDA | 0pts |