Holeshot for Gajser in round one qualifier

The day was okay, I was feeling good on the bike and I was fast on the track. The qualification race was going well until I crashed as I took the holeshot and I was riding well. When Febvre closed up I started riding a little tight and made some little mistakes. I had a small crash, and then in the same lap I changed my line in the wave section, caught a square edge and had quite big get-off. Thankfully I was able to continue without any pain and ended up finishing in ninth place. This should still be a good enough gate pick for tomorrow, which is a day I have been looking forward to all winter.

It feels really good to be back racing and I’m not too disappointed with today. In timed practice I was 15th fastest and I think that for now, that is around my place. Then in the qualifying race I was a little too stressed, and I was riding too tight, which probably caused my crash, so I could only finish in 21st place. I definitely think tomorrow will be better though.

It was great to see Tim grab the first holeshot of the season on his CRF450RW. It shows that all the work the team have put in over the winter has paid off and it was really nice to see him leading the first half of the race. Unfortunately he suffered a couple of crashes, but he should be okay for tomorrow which is when the points are at stake.
For Brian, it is still early for him as he comes back from missing almost all of 2018, so we are happy to see him out there competing. He also crashed once, but other than that, he had good battles with a lot of very talented riders which is very encouraging.