Full house for Team HRC at Czech GP

For the first time in 2023, Team HRC will have both Ruben Fernandez and reigning MXGP World Champion Tim Gajser under the awning for the MXGP of Czech Republic this weekend.

At the familiar Loket circuit, in the west of the country, Gajser will make his long-awaited return from a broken femur at what is the 12^th round of the series. The Slovenian rider has undergone a vigorous recovery programme on the injury he sustained in February, and after being back on the bike for a number of weeks, will experience his first competitive gate-drop at the hillside venue, which should hopefully be filled with thousands of his fans who have been waiting to see their hero in action.

The #243 will be joining Fernandez, who is having an excellent debut season with team, having just moved back into third place in the championship after the MXGP of Lombok, last time out. The Spaniard won the opening round of the season in Patagonia-Argentina and has since been a podium threat throughout the campaign and he’s heading to the Czech Republic with confidence that he has the speed to once again be amongst the front-runners at this historic venue.

While this will be Gajser’s first GP for nearly 10 months, there will be expectations that the five-time world champion will also be up near the front of this highly competitive MXGP class. However, neither the team, nor the rider are putting too much pressure on the results and will instead use this outing as the building block to getting back to the speed that saw him dominate the 2022 campaign, and put him in a position where he can have a successful final third of this 2023 season.

As has been the case this year, Gajser’s first opportunity to score points will be in the Saturday qualifying race, where 10 points are on offer to the winner, nine to second place, down to one point for 10^th. This result will then also give the gate-position for the two GP-scoring motos on the Sunday, where the standard 50 points are at stake.