Gajser returns to winning ways in Germany, as Evans put in season’s best

Teutschenthal, Germany was the host for this 11^th round of the 2022 MXGP World Championship, where Team HRC’s Tim Gajser returned to winning ways, taking his seventh overall of the season and extending his points lead to 101. Teammate Mitch Evans also put in his best results of the season with an eight-six for seventh overall.

In what was almost a perfect weekend for the Slovenian, Gajser had already posted the fastest times in free and timed practice, before winning the Saturday qualifying race too. He then stormed off to a holeshot in race one, sweeping around the first turn and never looking back as he dominated that moto, posting a laptime almost one second quicker than anyone else.

In race two, he wasn’t quite able to match that feat, not getting quite as good a start and instead having to work his way through into second by the start of lap one. Despite posting the fastest laptime once again, he wasn’t able to find his way past the leader, on a track that didn’t provide many passing opportunities, and instead settled for crossing the line in second and taking his seventh overall of what is already an excellent 2022 campaign.

For Evans, an excellent fifth in the qualification race gave him the opportunity to mix it up with the top riders off the gate and he was able to take advantage of that by posting two results inside the top 10 for the first time this year. In both races, it was pretty much the case that where you crossed the first lap, is where you finished the race but Evans was able to advance from ninth to eighth in race one. In race two, he knew a better start would help him out and he was able to achieve that, crossing the line in sixth the first time around. He was then involved in a race-long battle with riders ahead and behind, but he kept posting strong, consistent laptimes and received the chequered flag in sixth. His 28-point tally was four more than his previous best and gives him a lot of confidence that things can get even better in future rounds.

Next up for the riders is a new circuit in Samota-Sumbawa, Indonesia on 25-26 June. This gives Gajser and Evans a weekend off to recover from this run of three races in three weekends, and prepare themselves for what should be a totally different experience on what will be a brand-new facility, built specifically for this upcoming GP.