Tim Gajser and Jorge Zaragoza both experienced tough qualifying races for the MXGP of Belgium today: Gajser recouping eleventh but Zaragoza crossing the line in 22nd.
With a packed track schedule, the ordinarily demanding deep sand of the Lommel track was made even more tricky and heavily rutted by the sheer amount of running.
Gajser, on the same day as he signed his multi-year deal with HRC to remain on the Honda CRF until 2020, showed good pace in the morning practice but fell foul of the conditions in the race. Moving himself into fifth from the start, a crash in the second corner demoted him to the back of the grid.
A lap later, the Slovenian had climbed back to 20th, only to suffer another crash and have to start all over again. From then though his pace and strength until the flag saw him steadily climb through to 11th at the finish, so he retains the chance to jump to the front with a good start tomorrow.
Jorge Zaragoza is certainly not his happiest on sand, and with Lommel being the ultimate sand track it was always going to be challenging. Indeed, also suffering a couple of crashes, he crossed the line in 22nd.
Giacomo Gariboldi, Team Principal
“Today it was important to stay on two wheels, but today Tim had bad luck in the second turn with a crash, and then he crashed again because maybe he was a little tight after the first lap. Then though he made a nice race to come through to finish eleventh for tomorrow. Of course it’s not the best, but it’s quite good given the circumstances. Tomorrow he just needs to move himself into the top five or six, and then with his strength he can likely gain some places in the last minutes of the race. We knew that it was going to be very tough for Jorge today and that he would find it difficult, but he also had a couple of crashes which made it even harder for him.”
Tim Gajser, no.243
“We had some crashes today so it was not the best, but after two crashes I finished 11th so it’s still not so bad. We have a quite ok gate pick for tomorrow so we need to make two good starts and then ride more smart and not push too hard and the results will be better.”
Jorge Zaragoza, no.101
“It’s very difficult here in the sand, and with the crash on the first lap it was even more hard as I lost a lot of time there. Then my riding was not so bad, so I hope tomorrow will be better. This is Lommel so of course it will be so difficult, but I just hope to try and be further up in the race.”