Mixed emotions as Team HRC head to Trentino

Hot on the heels of Monday’s MXGP of Switzerland, comes the MXGP of Trentino, at the picturesque and historic Pietramurata circuit in northern Italy, a venue that has hosted some truly epic rounds of the world motocross championship.

Unfortunately, Team HRC’s Tim Gajser, who has created many of those moments won’t be attendance but he’ll be cheering on from his home and supporting Ruben Fernandez who will be aiming to get back up front again after the Swiss round, where he was battling around fifth place. However, after last weekend’s timetable which was affected by the Easter Holidays, the #70 has one less day to get ready before this weekend which returns to the traditional Saturday-Sunday format.

After winning the opening event in Patagonia-Argentina, Fernandez has had to battle hard in the next two rounds to maintain that level on tracks that weren’t favourable to the Spaniard, but now, although Pietramurata isn’t his favourite track, it is a track he scored three podiums in a row on in 2021, so he knows how to do well and that’ll be the aim this coming weekend. The Honda CRF450R rider currently sits in sixth place in the championship but with fifth place just seven points ahead, this will provide additional motivation.

Currently there is heavy rain today, which then clears up for the majority of the weekend, so the track should be in good condition by the time the MXGP riders get out on the circuit for their free and timed practices on Saturday. This is then followed by the qualification race on Saturday afternoon, before a Sunday morning warm-up and the two motos in the afternoon completing the schedule for this fourth round of the 2023 MXGP championship.