Hot weather and deep sand provided a real challenge for the Team HRC duo of Tim Gajser and Ruben Fernandez, with both riders giving everything at this MXGP of the Netherlands.

This was the first time that Arnhem has featured on the world motocross calendar, and with a packed crowd cheering the riders on, it made for an epic occasion, with the sunshine helping the atmosphere. For Gajser, his focus was on trying to get nearer to the podium, which he believes is getting closer and closer, and with speed in the timed practice, he headed into today wanted to make that podium happen today. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get ahead of any of his major rivals off the line and while his speed was good, he was too far back in the first moto to challenge higher up once he got into fifth halfway through the race. In the second moto, a better start saw him up in sixth after the first lap, with him moving into fifth a few laps later. However, despite multiple attempts to pass the rider in fourth, he wasn’t quite able to make it happen and instead had to settle for another fifth place. This gave him 32 points and fifth overall, which is his best results since returning from his broken femur and further proof that he is moving in the right direction.

Coming into the weekend, Fernandez was still not where he wanted to be, after not being able to train properly since Finland. And things definitely didn’t get better in the first moto when he was caught up in the crash on the start straight. Picking up near the back of the field, he was then dead last after coming into switch his goggles, which were a casualty of the incident. But from 32nd position, he went on a charge, posting really good laptimes to move all the way into 17th place by the end of the race.

Race two went a lot better as he was in seventh place around the first lap, but with the tough sandy conditions, combined with the hot weather and his bumps and bruises, he was only able to finish in eighth place, rather than put in his usual charge through the pack. Still, it was a good result all things considered and with a weekend off to recover before Turkey, the Spaniard will be looking to finish the season as he started by pushing for those podium spots.

The Afyon track will provide a much different challenge for the pair when they next mount their Honda CRF450Rs, with the flat, hard-pack terrain meaning a totally different setup than they’ve been able to run in the last few weeks. However, both riders have had some good motos in Turkey in previous years and that’ll be their target when they return on September 2nd.

Tim Gajser 243

Overall, even though it is my best points haul since I returned from injury, I wanted higher and to challenge with the podium guys so I’m not 100% happy to only finish fifth. My riding was good today and we improved a lot and worked on some things that will definitely help in the future so it was positive and really, I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. I felt I could have got a couple of extra points in the second moto and came close to the pass for fourth, but couldn’t quite make it happen. It is another step up though and for that I am looking forward to Turkey which is a track I’ve done well on before and should be good after a weekend off.

Ruben Fernandez 70

It’s been a tough few weeks for me and today didn’t go to plan, with the crash on the first moto start straight. Picking up the bike in last certainly wasn’t ideal, and then coming into change goggles delayed me even further but my riding after that was good and I showed some good speed to make my way all the way back up to 17th. The second race went better and I was inside the top 10 off the start, but having used up a lot of energy in the first moto, I couldn’t push forward like I wanted to and ended up eighth. I’m glad to get through it though and I’m glad for another weekend off to recover from this event and hopefully by the time we reach Turkey I’ll be much closer to 100%.

Marcus Pereira de Freitas

HRC General Manager - MXGP

Tim is showing some much more consistent form and while he hasn’t quite been able to challenge for the podium spots just yet, he is definitely trending in the right direction and that excites us for Turkey and the last few rounds because he definitely likes those tracks. Ruben had a much tougher day, with that crash off the start really making things difficult for him, but he never gave up and really rode well. Our plan for him is to just make sure he comes into Turkey feeling as good as possible and finish this season off strongly.

MXGP 2023
Race Round 16   Netherlands

Race 1

Sunny
Air Temp
26°C
Track Cond
Sand
Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Prado Garcia Jorge 61 SPA 25 Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing GasGas 35:18.978
2 Febvre Romain 3 FRA 22 Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP Kawasaki 0:04.399
3 Seewer Jeremy 91 SWI 20 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team Yamaha 0:16.442
4 Coldenhoff Glenn 959 NDL 18 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team Yamaha 0:31.853
5 Gajser Tim 243 SLO 16 Team HRC - MXGP Honda 0:37.696
6 Forato Alberto 303 ITA 15 SM Action Racing Team Yuasa Battery KTM 0:41.573
7 Renaux Maxime 959 FRA 14 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team Yamaha 0:59.313
8 Jonass Pauls 41 LAT 13 Standing Construct Honda MXGP Honda 1:05.777
9 Bogers Brian 189 NDL 12 Standing Construct Honda MXGP Honda 1:20.069
10 Evans Mitch 43 AUS 11 Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP Kawasaki 1:26.880
11 Watson Ben 919 GBR 10 MRT Racing Team Beta Beta 1:30.061
12 Östlund Alvin 161 SWE 9 JWR Honda Racing Honda 1:50.565
13 Koch Tom 226 GER 8 KTM Kosak Team KTM 1:52.799
14 Spies Maximillian 71 GER 7 KTM Kosak Team KTM 1:57.221
15 Guillod Valentin 92 SWI 6 Team Ship To Cycle Honda SR Motoblouz Honda 1 Lap
16 Petrov Petar BUL 5 1 Lap
17 Fernandez Ruben 70 SPA 4 Team HRC - MXGP Honda 1 Lap
18 Purdon Tristan 141 RSA 3 Wildcard Rider KTM 1 Lap
19 Conijn Marcel NDL 2 1 Lap
20 Van der Mierden Sven NDL 1 1 Lap
MXGP 2023
Race Round 16   Netherlands

Race 2

Sunny
Air Temp
25°C
Track Cond
Sand
Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Febvre Romain 3 FRA 25 Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP Kawasaki 33:53.464
2 Seewer Jeremy 91 SWI 22 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team Yamaha 0:00.987
3 Coldenhoff Glenn 959 NDL 20 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team Yamaha 0:01.866
4 Prado Garcia Jorge 61 SPA 18 Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing GasGas 0:24.691
5 Gajser Tim 243 SLO 16 Team HRC - MXGP Honda 0:27.809
6 Renaux Maxime 959 FRA 15 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team Yamaha 0:37.166
7 Forato Alberto 303 ITA 14 SM Action Racing Team Yuasa Battery KTM 0:39.251
8 Fernandez Ruben 70 SPA 13 Team HRC - MXGP Honda 1:09.327
9 Jonass Pauls 41 LAT 12 Standing Construct Honda MXGP Honda 1:22.180
10 Bogers Brian 189 NDL 11 Standing Construct Honda MXGP Honda 1:34.106
11 Watson Ben 919 GBR 10 MRT Racing Team Beta Beta 1:36.009
12 Paturel Benoit 6 FRA 9 De Baets Yamaha MX-Team Yamaha 1:51.416
13 Guillod Valentin 92 SWI 8 Team Ship To Cycle Honda SR Motoblouz Honda 2:01.640
14 Östlund Alvin 161 SWE 7 JWR Honda Racing Honda 2:05.649
15 Evans Mitch 43 AUS 6 Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP Kawasaki 1 Lap
16 Petrov Petar BUL 5 1 Lap
17 Koch Tom 226 GER 4 KTM Kosak Team KTM 1 Lap
18 Spies Maximillian 71 GER 3 KTM Kosak Team KTM 1 Lap
19 De Waal Micha-Boy NDL 2 1 Lap
20 Gerhardsson Albin 52 SWE 1 Wildcard Rider Husqvarna 1 Lap
MXGP 2023

Rider standings

Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor
1 Prado Garcia Jorge 61 SPA 821 Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing GasGas
2 Febvre Romain 3 FRA 729 Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP Kawasaki
3 Seewer Jeremy 91 SWI 652 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team Yamaha
4 Coldenhoff Glenn 959 NDL 600 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team Yamaha
5 Fernandez Ruben 70 SPA 542 Team HRC - MXGP Honda
6 Vlaanderen Calvin 10 NDL 498 Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing Yamaha
7 Herlings Jeffrey 84 NDL 455 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM
8 Forato Alberto 303 ITA 414 SM Action Racing Team Yuasa Battery KTM
9 Guillod Valentin 92 SWI 295 Team Ship To Cycle Honda SR Motoblouz Honda
10 Renaux Maxime 959 FRA 260 Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team Yamaha
11 Paturel Benoit 6 FRA 224 De Baets Yamaha MX-Team Yamaha
12 Evans Mitch 43 AUS 220 Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP Kawasaki
13 Watson Ben 919 GBR 211 MRT Racing Team Beta Beta
14 Guadagnini Mattia 101 ITA 203 Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing GasGas
15 Bogers Brian 189 NDL 202 Standing Construct Honda MXGP Honda
16 Östlund Alvin 161 SWE 194 JWR Honda Racing Honda
17 Gajser Tim 243 SLO 151 Team HRC - MXGP Honda
18 Koch Tom 226 GER 150 KTM Kosak Team KTM
19 Lupino Alessandro 77 ITA 140 MRT Racing Team Beta Beta
20 Spies Maximillian 71 GER 114 KTM Kosak Team KTM
21 van Doninck Brent 32 BEL 113 JM Honda Racing Honda
22 Jonass Pauls 41 LAT 110 Standing Construct Honda MXGP Honda
23 Van Horebeek Jeremy 89 BEL 110 Standing Construct Honda MXGP Honda
24 Petrov Petar BUL 53
25 Roosiorg Hardi 75 EST 52 JWR Honda Racing Honda
26 Haavisto Jere FIN 51
27 Brumann Kevin 87 SWI 43 JK Racing Yamaha Active Yamaha
28 Jacobi Henry GER 29
29 Rubini Stephen 38 FRA 27 Team Ship To Cycle Honda SR Motoblouz Honda
30 Stewart Lewis AUS 25
31 Murray Nicholas 167 AUS 21 Wildcard Rider Husqvarna
32 Kullas Harri FIN 20
33 Maksum Hilman IDN 17
34 Koch Tim 86 GER 15 Wildcard Rider Suzuki
35 Gerhardsson Albin 52 SWE 15 Wildcard Rider Husqvarna
36 Sterry Adam 811 GBR 13 Wildcard Rider KTM
37 Kerhoas Lionel 988 FRA 12 Wildcard Rider Husqvarna
38 Ivanov Michael 97 BUL 11 Wildcard Rider Husqvarna
39 Leok Tanel EST 10
40 Goupillon Pierre 57 FRA 10 Wildcard Rider KTM
41 Krestinov Gert EST 10
42 Dickinson Ashton 115 GBR 9 Wildcard Rider KTM
43 Tonus Arnaud SWI 8
44 Sileika Tomass 637 LAT 7 Wildcard Rider GasGas
45 Monticelli Ivo ITA 6
46 Jost Simon 53 SLK 6 Wildcard Rider KTM
47 Sihvonen Miro FIN 6
48 Purdon Tristan 141 RSA 6 Wildcard Rider KTM
49 Scheu Mark 991 GER 5 Wildcard Rider Husqvarna
50 Lusbo Andero EST 5
51 Poli Joaquin 179 ARG 5 Wildcard Rider Kawasaki
52 Mewse Conrad 426 GBR 4 Wildcard Rider Honda
53 Karlsson Danne 692 SWE 4 Wildcard Rider GasGas
54 Alberto Paulo POR 4
55 Tondel Cornelius NOR 3
56 Kohut Tomas 45 CZE 3 Wildcard Rider KTM
57 Koch Nico 260 GER 2 Wildcard Rider KTM
58 Conijn Marcel NDL 2
59 Jazdauskas Domantas 181 LTU 2 Wildcard Rider KTM
60 Joergensen Mathias 221 DEN 2 Wildcard Rider Yamaha
61 Croci Simone 771 ITA 2 Wildcard Rider Husqvarna
62 Malaval Adrien FRA 2
63 De Waal Micha-Boy NDL 2
64 Poli Agustin 98 ARG 1 Wildcard Rider Kawasaki
65 Ubach Simeo 724 SPA 1 Wildcard Rider Husqvarna
66 Van Berkel Lars 107 NDL 1 Wildcard Rider Honda
67 Van der Mierden Sven NDL 1
68 Jasikonis Arminas 2 LTU 1 Wildcard Rider GasGas
69 Clochet Jimmy 520 FRA 0 Wildcard Rider Honda
70 Outeiro Luis 147 POR 0 Wildcard Rider Yamaha
71 Sandner Michael 766 AUT 0 Wildcard Rider KTM
Location Information