The 2024 MXGP World Championship begins the first of it’s triple-headers this weekend as the series heads to Agueda, Portugal for the fifth round in this exciting battle. The following weekend the series heads north to Lugo in Spain for the inaugural race at that circuit before the third race in a row at the beautiful St Jean D’Angely track in France.
Tim Gajser will be the sole representative for Team HRC in Agueda, as Ruben Fernandez (MXGP) and Ferruccio Zanchi (MX2) recover from their injuries that have seen them miss the past few rounds. Fernandez’ injury is a bit more longer-term, but his initial recovery from the surgery has been good and he’s been diligently doing all his physio to try and get back on his Honda CRF450R as quickly as possible. For Zanchi, it was decided that another weekend on the sidelines was the best course of action, just to give his shoulder the best possible chance of being 100% as we start to approach the busy part of the calendar.
As for Gajser, the Slovenian closed up the gap in the championship to just 13 points after the last round in Trentino and while he is still looking for his first GP overall, he knows that he is riding extremely well and it is surely just a matter of time before he steps onto the top step of the podium. Agueda is a track he has done well at before, having won the GP back in 2019 and scored highly at in other years, and he’ll be hoping that he can make it another victory come Sunday evening after the completion of the two GP-scoring motos.
Tim Gajser 243
It’s been good to have a couple of weekends off, just to recharge the batteries a bit before this stretch of races where we have six rounds in seven weekends. I like going to Portugal as the track is a good one, and the fans are always very supportive and it is just a nice weekend overall. Obviously, I want to get a win, as I try to every weekend, but it is still early-on in the championship and right now I’m riding well and staying consistent and that is very important.
Marcus Pereira de Freitas
HRC General Manager – MXGP
We’ve had a couple of productive weeks away from the races, just having a chance to work on somethings with a bit more time. Tim is still in a good frame of mind and we can trust his programme to be on track at all times and I’m sure he’s excited for that gate-drop again. Unfortunately Ferro wasn’t quite ready for this race and we didn’t want to push him because it is better that he gets completely healed up for this hectic part of the year, than rush back and do even more damage. Of course, Ruben is also disappointed to be missing, but we’ve been getting encouraging reports that things are going well and hope that continues.
Rider Standings
Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team
1 Prado Garcia Jorge 1 SPA 219 Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing
2 Gajser Tim 243 SLO 206 Team HRC – MXGP
3 Febvre Romain 3 FRA 174 Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP
4 Herlings Jeffrey 84 NDL 164 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
5 Jonass Pauls 41 LAT 142 Standing Construct Honda MXGP
6 Seewer Jeremy 91 SWI 141 Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP
7 Vlaanderen Calvin 10 NDL 131 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team
8 Coldenhoff Glenn 259 NDL 118 Fantic Factory Racing MXGP
9 Guillod Valentin 92 SWI 88 Team Ship To Cycle Honda SR Motoblouz
10 Horgmo Kevin 24 NOR 82 Team Ship To Cycle Honda SR Motoblouz
11 Watson Ben 919 GBR 78 MRT Racing Team Beta
12 Renaux Maxime 959 FRA 63 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team
13 Tondel Cornelius 17 NOR 45 Schmicker Racing
14 Gifting Isak 517 SWE 45 JK Racing Yamaha Active
15 Koch Tom GER 40
16 Monticelli Ivo 128 ITA 38 MRT Racing Team Beta
17 Bogers Brian 189 NDL 38 Fantic Factory Racing MXGP
18 Pancar Jan 253 SLO 37 TEM JP253 KTM Racing Team
19 Spies Maximillian GER 27
20 Paturel Benoit FRA 26
