Gajser denied at the end after second moto victory in Uddevalla thriller

Team HRC’s Tim Gajser was denied a 10^th MXGP overall victory as a last lap pass elsewhere on the track meant that the Slovenian’s second moto victory wasn’t quite enough for the win at the 2019 MXGP of Sweden.

While there was a little disappointment that his 16^th race win didn’t result in the top step of the podium, it was still an impressive performance from the Honda CRF450RW rider after wrapping up the MXGP world championship title last weekend in Italy. His three-one finishes were a perfect way to get over the potential title-winning hangover and the win in the second race proves once again he is the fastest rider in this highly competitive MXGP class.

Passing was most definitely at a premium on this Uddevalla track, as riders tried desperately to find different lines on the hard-packed stony surface. With two good starts, Gajser put himself in a strong position in both races, but he’ll be left to rue a small mistake in race one when running in second place. This only dropped him down to fourth place, but it was enough to put him out of his rhythm and it forced him to try and make more passes on this technical circuit. In the end he was able to get up to third place, which would have been good enough if the second moto had finished one lap earlier.

In race two, he once again was in second place after lap one, but this time he rode in a smooth manner, keeping the pressure on and looking for passes for the duration. Eventually, after finding the right spot to make his move, he swept round the outside and into first place with just a few laps remaining. As it stood at that moment he would have won the overall, but as the laps ticked down, others riders made mistakes which moved the eventual overall winner up to the second place he needed on the very last lap.

With two events left to race, Gajser now has a weekend off, before back to back races in Turkey and China which will round out his highly successful 2019 campaign. Hopefully by then teammate Brian Bogers will be fully recovered from his shoulder injury and he’ll meet up with the rest of Team HRC at Afyonkarahisar on September 7-8.