The 19th round of the 2024 Motocross World Championship, sees the Team HRC trio of Tim Gajser, Ruben Fernandez and Ferruccio Zanchi head to Shanghai, China as the series nears its exciting conclusion. With Gajser currently 14 points up in the standings, he knows that six strong races here and in Spain for the final round, and he’ll seal his sixth world title, but as always, the Slovenian will be hunting for the victory in order to finish the season in style.
This time out, the action will be taking place on Sunday and Monday, giving the riders and all the team members one extra day to prepare themselves and the machines for the ordeals of what should be a hot weekend in the Chinese region. The racing is also scheduled to be one hour earlier (local time) than usual, as is typical with the flyaway events, but neither of these two timetable changes should affect the riders and it’ll be business as usual when the helmets go on.
For Fernandez, the aim is to continue his upwards trajectory since he returned from injury and after another impressive outing in Turkiye, the Spaniard is motivated to keep pushing and make sure that he is as close to 100% as possible by the time the final GP – in his home country – comes around. Now though, his focus is on China and although it’ll be a new experience for him, he will trying to achieve his goal of three good races over the two days.
It’ll also be a new challenge for Zanchi, who is adapting well to life in the world championships. The rookie only missed a couple of early rounds through injury and has since acquitted himself really well to the demands placed upon him in this gruelling calendar. Last time out in Turkiye, he got his first holeshot and although it didn’t go to plan after that, he now knows that it is possible and is another piece in the puzzle that’s been slotted into place.
With temperatures above 30C and possible thunderstorms likely at some point over the two days, all three riders will enter China prepared for anything and motivated to prove a point as the 2024 campaign approaches its conclusion.
Tim Gajser: I have good memories from China in 2019, as this is where I received the trophy after winning the MXGP Championship that year. I guess the track will be different this time around, but they did a good job with everything last time so I’m interested to see what they come up with for the weekend. Well actually, it is Sunday-Monday racing, which is a little different but won’t make any difference once we are there at the track, so I’m excited to get there and get going!
Ruben Fernandez: I wasn’t doing the world championships the last time we went to China, so this will be a completely new experience for me. I do like going to new places though and seeing new things and Shanghai is meant to be a cool city so hopefully I get a chance to be a tourist for a little bit of time. Of course the main focus is the racing and I feel like things are going well since I came back. I’m getting used to the pace, and my riding overall has been good, so I will just try to keep building and getting myself back to the top level.
Ferruccio Zanchi: China will be a new race for me, and I am excited to see what it is like. Turkiye, last time out had some good moments and some bad moments, which is kind of how the season has gone as a whole. I have never quite been able to have 100% good GPs, but with two rounds left, I still have time and that will be my goal for China and the last round in Spain.
Marcus Pereira de Freitas: Winning the qualification race in Turkiye was good, but Tim couldn’t quite replicate that in the GP-scoring motos on Sunday, so our goal is to try to make sure that he is able to win in all three races in China. With the action taking place on Sunday and Monday at this event, we have an extra day, but with all the travel, it hasn’t really felt like that, so a big thanks to all the crew for the work they do. For Ruben and Ferro, we are just trying to get them to focus on the good things and enjoy the riding, and if they do that, I think both can have success in Shanghai.
Photocredits – Fullspectrum media
