Tim Gajser makes his long-awaited return to MXGP action this weekend, as the world motocross championship heads to Uddevalla, Sweden for the 16th round of the series. The Slovenian was last seen at round six in Switzerland, having already won three rounds and with a championship lead of nearly 50 points at the time of his unfortunate crash at the Frauenfeld circuit. The Honda HRC has been back riding for a couple of weeks now, but knowing the rigours that an MXGP weekend demands, it was decided he would only make his reappearance when completely 100% healthy.
He will be lining up alongside teammate Ruben Fernandez, who currently sits in fourth place in the standings, 67 points behind third place. It is a big gap, but the Spaniard still has five rounds to make up that ground and it starts this weekend on the rocky Swedish hillside venue that rewards good starts – something the #70 has been able to produce on a number of occasions this year. While it isn’t his favourite venue, he will give it 100% as he looks to bounce-back from a disappointing experience at Lommel and try to have a good last quarter of this 2025 season.
This is the same sentiment for MX2 rookie Valerio Lata, who has gone through a tough spell in recent weeks, but now wants to show his best self for these final five rounds. The Italian rider didn’t enjoy the GP of Flanders, but chose to stick around afterwards to try and improve his sand riding for the future – a sign of his grit and determination. Now though, he’s heading to a track he enjoys riding and one where his skillset is much more suited. The gravelly circuit is similar to the tracks he grew up riding in Italy and he’ll be hoping he can once again mix it up with the best 250cc riders in the world.
Tim Gajser
It is great to be back with the team and getting ready to go racing again. It has been a long time since Switzerland and while I have been riding for a while, I wanted to make sure the injury had healed up properly, before lining up at the MXGPs. I don’t really expect too much from this race itself, I know that coming back after a big break, it takes some time to get into race shape again so I’ll just go out there and enjoy myself at these first couple of rounds before hopefully working my way up near the top of the field by the time the season ends.
Ruben Fernandez
While Uddevalla isn’t one of my favourite tracks, I am very much looking forward to getting back to racing and trying to show everyone my speed again. The last round in Lommel didn’t go to plan so it is important to bounce back and score some good points this weekend. It seems like we’re going to have good weather, so I really want to enjoy the event and have some fun and ride at the level I know I’m capable of.
Valerio Lata
After the Lommel GP, I stuck around the area to train there and get better in the sand. I know that it is important for my development and I believe I made some progress which will hopefully help at Arnhem, the round after Sweden. Now though, it is Uddevalla and it is a track I like a lot and I hope that things will go well there. I want to try and finish this year off strongly and there are five rounds where I will be trying to score as many points as possible.
Marcus Pereira de Freitas
We are delighted to have Tim joining us in Sweden. We have been keeping up to date with his recovery and he has done everything possible to be ready, and we also know that his riding level has been really good since he got back on the bike. However, we also are aware that training at home is one thing, and MXGP racing is completely different so we don’t have any expectations results-wise for him and just hope he can get back to race-shape as quickly as possible. Both Ruben and Valerio had tough races in Belgium so they are eager to put things right and we’ve been helping them as much as possible during this weekend off.
