Solid fifth at sandy Assen for Gajser as Bogers takes first MXGP points

Team HRC’s MXGP of the Nertherlands draws to a close with a solid performance by Tim Gajser, who was fourth and fifth in the two MXGP races at TT Circuit Assen for fifth overall. His teammate Brian Bogers showed great speed aboard his Honda CRF450RW machine as he was 16^th on his MXGP debut before crashing unhurt in the second encounter.

Gajser had a decent start from the fifth most-inside gate and maintained his qualifying position during the opening lap of the moto. He then began his chase to the top-three behind Max Anstie and, after the two managed to pass Glenn Coldenhoff, the two-time world champion did his best to close the gap with the Briton but came 2.8secs short of third place at the finish line. Tim was quick out of the gates in race two and was running in third as the first lap drew to a close. He was then overtaken by new world champion Jeffrey Herlings and by Anstie, before settling into a nice rhythm that helped him consolidate fifth place as the race progressed.

Brian Bogers continued his positive progression and scored his first world championship points in the first race and ran as high as thirteenth while showing an encouraging level of form despite the complete lack of racing time this year prior to this weekend. The young Dutchman unfortunately crashed unhurt on the second lap of race two. Despite being stuck under the bike for a few moments, he eventually managed to re-join proceedings and to complete the race in 26^th place.

The final round of the 2018 MXGP World Championship will take place at Imola’s Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari on September 29-30.

Tim Gajser ²⁴³

It was a solid weekend overall. We definitely have to do some more work on the sand for next year – even though we improved a lot from Lommel. We managed to close the gap a little to Desalle, even though with only one round left there are still quite a lot of points between us. We get these points and look forward to Imola: it’s a hard-pack track and from what I’ve seen it looks quite good, so I can’t wait to try it out! The team has been spot on as usual so a big thank you to them!

Brian Bogers ⁵

Warm up went well and despite a not-so-great start in race one, I managed to score some points – which was the goal for the weekend – so I’m happy. Unfortunately after the crash in the second moto I had no strength left to get back up to full race speed and I could only ride the bike to the finish line. The good thing is that I’m fine fitness-wise; I just have a few bruises here and there. Overall things were not too bad and I’m looking forward to racing at Imola. Thanks to the team for their hard work, the bike worked really well.

Marcus Pereira de Freitas

HRC General Manager - MXGP

We are mostly happy with the outcome of this weekend. We knew it was not going to be the easiest of races for Tim but he put together a very solid and mature performance for a top-five finish that we will gladly take back home with us. Brian did a great job in race one and exceeded expectations, and I think that if this is the type of performance he can deliver on his debut MXGP weekend and after being away for so long, then the future is really bright. Too bad for the crash in the second moto, but he’s unhurt and that’s all we care about. Thanks to the team for the amazing job, and hopefully we’ll wrap up the season in style at Imola!

MXGP 2018 Sunday, September 16th 2018

Race Round 19 MXGP of the Netherlands Netherlands