Gajser maintains strong start, as Zanchi fights hard in Spain

MXGP

Team HRC’s Tim Gajser put in a solid day of racing at the second round of the 2024 MXGP World Championship, held at the Intu-Xanadu circuit in Arroyomolinos near Madrid in Spain. The Slovenian had the second fastest time in timed practice, and then placed second again in the qualification race, giving him nine points and moving him up into second place in the championship.

On what is a very-rutted circuit, the Honda CRF450R rider took his time to find his rhythm, but once there, he showed the speed that saw him win two of the three races in Argentina last time out. This gave him a good pick for the qualification race, where he was unable to maximise that advantage as he didn’t get the best of starts. However, the #243 made a lot of moves on the opening lap and actually had got his way all the way up to third by the end of the first full lap. Three laps later and the five-time world champion was into second place but by the time he got there, the leader had already opened up a considerable gap and rather than push too hard on this tricky terrain, he decided just to cruise it home for a solid second place. This gives him second pick once again for the two motos tomorrow, where he’ll be hoping to make better starts and try to add to his race and overall win tally and get hold of the championship-leading red-plate.

Unfortunately watching from the sidelines was teammate Ruben Fernandez, who is missing this round due to the torn ACL he suffered in Argentina. The Spaniard still had a good reception wherever he went amongst all the fans in the crowd, but he would much prefer to be out there battling on the track.

MX2

It was a difficult day at the office for youngster Ferruccio Zanchi, who was never able to find the speed and consistency that he displayed on his Team HRC debut last time out in Argentina. The #73 wasn’t able to lay down a good lap in the timed practice, which meant that he started in the middle of the pack and had to fight it out with a lot of other riders early on.

Unfortunately, he paid the penalty for this, with a small tip-over on the opening lap, dropping to the very back of the pack. Just like in Argentina, he put his head down and charged as much as he could, but with the shorter race time for these qualification races, he was only able to get back to 17^th, which is outside the points and means that once again he’ll have a difficult gate-drop for the two GP-scoring motos tomorrow.

1. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), 24:17.585;
2. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:03.028;
3. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), +0:13.102;
4. Lucas Coenen (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:17.132;
5. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:20.915;
6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:23.941;
7. Marc-Antoine Rossi (FRA, GASGAS), +0:26.772;
8. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:29.290;
9. Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), +0:38.102;
10. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, Yamaha), +0:51.191;
…
17. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +1:31.386;