Honda HRC looking to create better memories in Cozar

The second round of the 2025 MXGP World Championship takes place in Cozar, in the Castilla La Mancha region on Spain, where the 2024 season-finale took place, a venue that doesn’t hold many happy memories for the Honda HRC team.

For Tim Gajser, it is the circuit where he lost out on his sixth world title after coming up just short over the course of the weekend, but the Slovenian has put that behind him and is now focusing on this year’s title-challenge which got off to a solid start in Argentina last time out. Third place finishes in all three points-scoring races over the weekend sees him in third position in the championship and while he would have liked to have won races, he knows that it’s a long season and he has plenty of opportunities to stand on the top step of the podium, and doing that in Cozar would banish a lot of 2024’s events.

Spaniard Ruben Fernandez also didn’t enjoy himself at this brand-new circuit in Spain last time out. He couldn’t find a good rhythm and wasn’t able to challenge at the top end of the field, so he’d love to do better in front of his home supporters this time out. Like Argentina, the #70 will be one of the most popular riders on the circuit and it’s something Fernandez is getting used to, especially as there are also races in Lugo and Portugal coming up on the calendar, and he really wants to reward all that support with good results.

One bright spot from 2024 in Cozar was Ferruccio Zanchi’s performance, as the young Italian had his highest points tally of the season at this round. It was the best possible ending to his rookie MX2 season and gave him a big boost heading into the off-season. Unfortunately, things didn’t go his way in Argentina, but he is looking to bounce back strongly this weekend, and this track gives him a great opportunity to do so.

Like new teammate Gajser, Valerio Lata also had championship heartbreak in Cozar at the end of 2024. The Italian lost out on the EMX250 title despite finishing second overall, and while he can’t get that moment back, a strong showing this time around will go a long way to forgetting about that race and also impressing his new bosses in Honda HRC. Mixed results in Argentina proceeded an impressive showing in an Italian Championship event last weekend and he’ll be heading to the circuit a couple of hours south of Madrid highly motivated to mix up with the best MX2 riders in the world.

Unfortunately the area has had some bad weather in the lead-up to this race, but the excitement is growing nevertheless and all four riders are motivated to improve upon their Argentina efforts.

TIMETABLE

SATURDAY:

07:35 EMX125 Group 1 Free Practice, 08:00 EMX125 Group 2 Free Practice, 08:25 EMX250 Group 1 Free Practice, 08:50 EMX250 Group 2 Free Practice, 09:15 EMX125 Group 1 Qualifying Practice, 09:50 EMX125 Group 2 Qualifying Practice, 10:25 MX2 Free Practice, 10:55 MXGP Free Practice, 11:55 EMX250 Group 1 Qualifying Practice, 12:35 EMX250 Group 2 Qualifying Practice, 13:15 MX2 Time Practice, 13:50 MXGP Time Practice, 14:35 EMX125 Race 1, 15:25 EMX250 Race 1, 16:20 MX2 Qualifying Race, 17:10 MXGP Qualifying Race.

SUNDAY:

08:45 EMX125 Race 2, 09:25 MX2 Warm-up, 09:45 MXGP Warm-up, 10:30 EMX250 Race 2, 12:15 MX2 Race 1, 13:15 MXGP Race 1, 15:10 MX2 Race 2, 16:10 MXGP Race 2.

Tim Gajser  243

It wasn’t my best opening round, but it also wasn’t my worst. The important thing is that I scored good points and didn’t make any big errors and kept things safe and steady. Of course, I hope to do better in the upcoming rounds, and that starts this weekend in Spain. Obviously it isn’t a place that holds great memories, but I believe they have done some work on the track and hopefully that’ll make it better and I will go out there and try to create some much nicer memories this year.

Ruben Fernandez  70

While it wasn’t my favourite track last year, it is still great to have races in Spain and I look forward to seeing a lot of supporters around the track. Argentina weren’t the results I was hoping for, and it was frustrating to get caught up on the first lap. Still, I passed a lot of riders and that gives me confidence moving forward, but now the aim to start up the front and battle with the leaders and try and get myself on the podium.

Ferruccio Zanchi  73

I wasn’t very happy with how Argentina went, and having the weekend off was good and bad. It would have been nice to have raced again as quickly as possible, but I also think that having a small break gave me a chance to assess things properly and see exactly where I can improve. Last year, I had great results in Cozar, so I’m excited to go out there and do it again this time around.

Valerio Lata  18

Bit of mixed feelings after Argentina, as I was happy to score some okay points and get my debut out of the way, in what was difficult conditions with the muddy and then dry track. However, I also know that I could have done better, so that is frustrating for me, as I was running in second place for a few laps. Still, I had a good race in Italy last weekend, winning both races with good starts and that is a nice boost coming into Spain.    

Marcus Pereira de Freitas

HRC General Manager – MXGP

The important thing leaving Argentina is that everyone was fit and healthy. The first round can be a crazy event, with everyone raring to go racing after four months of winter, and then combine that with the long travel and then the weather and a lot of things could have gone wrong, but thanks to all our hard work – they didn’t. Overall, Argentina was a solid, if not spectacular weekend, with all the riders probably hoping for more. Now our goal is to help them achieve that this weekend in Cozar.

Rider Standings

Pos.      Rider    Num    Nation               Points Team

1             Renaux Maxime           959       FRA      57          Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team

2            Febvre Romain            3            FRA      56          Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP

3            Gajser Tim       243       SLO      48         Honda HRC – MXGP

4            Guadagnini Mattia     101         ITA        40         Ducati Factory MX Team

5            Coldenhoff Glenn       259        NDL     35          Fantic Factory Racing MXGP

6            Coenen Lucas               96          BEL      27          Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

7            Seewer Jeremy            91           SWI      25          Ducati Factory MX Team

8            Horgmo Kevin              24          NOR     25          Honda SR Motoblouz

9            Jonass Pauls   41           LAT       25          Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP

10           Geerts Jago     93          BEL      22          Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team

11            Fernandez Ruben       70          SPA      21           Honda HRC – MXGP

12           Bonacorsi Andrea       132         ITA        21           Fantic Factory Racing MXGP

13           Guillod Valentin           92          SWI      16           Wildcard Rider

14           Vlaanderen Calvin      10           NDL     15           Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team

15           Pancar Jan      253        SLO      15           TEM JP253 KTM Racing Team

16           Bogers Brian 189        NDL     11            Fantic Factory Racing MXGP

17           Watson Ben    919        GBR     11            MRT Racing Team Beta

18           Gifting Isak      517        SWE     9            JK Racing Yamaha Active

19           Tondel Cornelius         17           NOR     6            JWR Honda Racing

20          Koch Tom         226        GER      5            MRT Racing Team Beta

21           Aparecido dos Santos Fabio                BRA      5

22          Brumann Kevin           87          SWI      1             Wildcard Rider

23          Forato Alberto              303       ITA        1             Honda SR Motoblouz