Tim Gajser recovered from a difficult weekend to finish a strong fourth in race two, putting him in fifth overall in the Grand Prix of Argentina.
Qualifying was a tough affair, with Tim finishing down in 15th. Race one today was also bruising, when a crash on the second lap demoted him to 20th and gave him a lot of work to do. He set about regaining lost ground on the CRF250R and was able to climb to 12th, but didn’t feel entirely comfortable.
Race two was very different though as we saw again the Tim that we’ve come to expect. Despite a bad start in which a misleading gate wobble lead him to start fractionally early and hit the gate, dropping him towards the back of the field, he was 16th by the third corner.
Throughout the rest of the race he showed his true podium potential and rode up to fourth place, closing on third but just running out of time before he could get close enough.
Having finished third in the opening race in Thailand, and in race two here narrowly missing a podium place, he certainly has the speed to be a contender this season. With two race wins to his name at the end of last year, this speed will certainly bring more Grand Prix podiums this season.
Giacomo Gariboldi, Team Principal
“Tim had again a crash in race one and he did not ride as we know he can but in the second moto we saw the Gajser who could play for the podium and he finished really strongly, closing on third. I think that he just needs to relax more and he will be a contender in Arco and for the rest of the championship. We shouldn’t forget that he is coming back from a very big injury at the MXoN at the end of last year and he is finding his speed just now. He is also just 18 years of age and one of the youngest of the series and he has plenty of time to win championships.”
Tim Gajser, no.243
“All the weekend I was struggling really; it was something strange. I was not relaxed and riding stiff and so hard on the bike; not normal Tim. First race I didn’t have the best start and then I crashed and after that lost my rhythm and everything was too hard. But then in the second race, it was much better. At the start, Max [Anstie] moved too early and when he moved, all the gates started to move a little so I started to pull the clutch. I was able to stop and not get stuck in the gate, but I was nearly last. I had a really good line inside the first corner and outside round the second corner so I made a lot of passes there. Then I was feeling a lot more comfortable and the race was not too bad. I was trying to push for third, but I just lost too much ground at the start. We had a bad Saturday and first half of Sunday, but this is a good end to the weekend.”