Tim Gajser will take his commanding lead of the MXGP World Championship to the MXGP of the Americas in Charlotte next weekend, the penultimate race in the series.
He does so after a difficult MXGP of the Netherlands in Assen today, where conditions got the better of the Slovenian and he failed to finish a race for the first time this season after a crash damaged his CRF450RW.
Heavy overnight rain compounded the already challenging soft sand, which became incredibly rutted, slippery and wet. In race one, as the field bunched into a waterlogged turn two, Gajser came off worst and crashed, demoting the Slovenian to the back of the grid. In typical GT243 style, he fought back to 12th however, salvaging valuable championship points in his maiden MXGP campaign.
Race two was dried and less rutted after work to the track during the afternoon’s break in proceedings, but Assen’s sand was no more forgiving. This time though, Gajser was back to his usual self as he picked off riders one at a time to climb to third. Tim was looking strong until he was caught out in the wave section whilst chasing Clement Desalle for second, and his bike veered off track and into a fence, smashing the throttle and snapping the front brake lever off.
Consequently, he was unable to finish the race, but fortunately his lead of the World Championship is such that he retains a gap of 65 points to Antonio Cairoli, with 100points left to play for. His next opportunity to seal his maiden MXGP World Championship title will come next weekend in Charlotte.
Tim Gajser, no.243
“For sure I’m disappointed with today and not happy with the result, but it’s racing and we’re competing at the highest level, always pushing 100 per cent, so things like this can happen. On a track like today, when it was so tough, they can happen very quickly too. First race I crashed twice and could come back to 12th but I wasn’t happy with my riding because I know I can do better. Before the second moto I tried to reset myself, and actually things were going much better and we were fighting for second, but then I made a mistake and went off the track. I broke the front brake and the throttle cable of the bike so I wasn’t able to continue. We don’t change our strategy and come just to race and enjoy, but of course you have the championship in the back of your mind. I didn’t feel relaxed this weekend and I wasn’t riding well from the start of the weekend and actually didn’t really enjoy it this weekend, but we can’t change it now so we must just learn from it and head into Charlotte fresh and focused to start again.”
Giacomo Gariboldi, Team Principal
“Of course the result today is disappointing, but this is racing and it can always happen, especially when the conditions are as difficult and unforgiving as they were today. It’s Tim’s first ‘bad’ weekend of the season, and fortunately because he’s been so dominant he still has a commanding lead of the series with just two races to go. So it is what it is, we cannot change it and we must just reset for Charlotte next weekend and come back like we know. Tim learns fast, and for sure he will learn from this weekend. In the second race today I think he would have been fighting for the win by the end of the race because he was looking fast and like the Tim we have seen all season, but this track will put you down so fast with even a little mistake and that’s what happened. The important thing though is that we look to next weekend with positivity because we are still in a very strong position in the championship.”