Team HRC’s Tim Gajser leads the MXGP World Championship
Lommel
Renowned for its endless deep sand and relentless rolling-bumps the FIM World Motocross Championship visited the Flanders circuit of Lommel today. A huge test for both riders and machines alike.
As the start gate dropped for the first time today it was Team Honda 114 Motorsport’s racer Ruben Fernandez who lead Honda’s charge in the MX2 class.
Fernandez battled hard in the first few laps and capitalised on his competitor’s mistakes to push into third place, which he held onto for six laps. A string of mistakes then hit Fernandez which dropped him to seventh position where he eventually finished the race.
Team Honda Racing Assomotor’s Stephen Rubini struggled once again today, battling to find his form of recent years. Rubini disappointedly did not finish race two after a small crash and finished race one in 20th position. Meanwhile, Spaniard Ruben Fernandez battled hard throughout moto two swapping sixth and seventh positions and eventually coming home in seventh to give the CRF250R rider sixth overall today.
His overall position in the World Championship means that Fernandez is now only one point away from second place going into round seven in Latvia next weekend.
In the MXGP class Team HRC’s Tim Gajser showed great speed on the CRF450RW and qualified in pole position for today’s racing.
Following and early crash in race one, the four-time World Champion battled hard throughout the moto whilst hampered by crash damage to his goggle roll-off system. Gajser had to ride the rest of the race with severely impaired vision with rain and sand on his goggle lens hindering his progress. Tim finished race one in seventh position with high hopes of better luck in race two.
A much better start in race two gave Gajser a good chance to progress to the front and by lap two the Slovenian had pushed into second place. As the race-pace picked up, small crashes on lap four and six were a big setback for Tim, but he regrouped and produced some blisteringly fast laps to be within a bike’s length of second place on the final lap. Pushing so hard though brings risk and another small crash put an end to Gajser’s hopes of a podium finish.
The current World Champion finished the day in sixth overall and plans to regroup and focus hard on the next round in Latvia on one week’s time.