Honda HRC excel in the sunshine and the rain of France

A beautiful morning awaited the Honda HRC riders in St Jean D’Angely, a familiar circuit which is hosting the MXGP of Europe and round three of the 2025 World Motocross Championship. The track was in prime condition and in the free practices, Tim Gajser and Ferruccio Zanchi were fastest, with Ruben Fernandez second and Valerio Lata fourth in their respective classes.

Then the rain hit, and that changed the track considerably as ruts formed and roost started to stick to the riders. Thankfully, just as they proved in Spain last weekend, all four riders adapted well to the harsher weather and put in some strong results in the qualification races to head into tomorrow in good shape.

For Gajser, who was almost a second quicker in timed practice, after just edging out Fernandez in the free session. He had to work his way through the top 10 in the qualification race, picking them off quickly to minimise the nasty roost he had to endure. By the end of fourth lap, he was into second place and although he put pressure on at the end, he was unable to make the pass necessary to continue his winning streak from Cozar, Spain. He was able to extend his championship lead though, moving it out to 23 points after seven of the sixty scheduled gate-drops.

Crossing the line behind him was teammate Fernandez, who had had a consistent day in all the weather and rode really well to hold off any challengers. He had a top five start and made a couple of passes on lap four to get into third and from there on, just kept it smooth in the muddy conditions. His goal tomorrow is to do that in both races and fight it out for the podium spots and continue his rise up the MXGP rankings.

In the MX2 class, both Zanchi and Lata started the day off strongly, continuing their momentum from Cozar, where Zanchi stepped on the podium for the first time. The pair had top 10 speed all day, and with a bit more luck in the qualification race, could easily have challenged higher up the field. In the end, Zanchi had to fight his way through the MX2 field to get up to 10^th place, while Lata fought hard for his seventh, and both will be hoping for more in the motos tomorrow.

While the forecast isn’t great, there isn’t anything expected that will faze the Honda HRC quartet and all four have shown the speed necessary to battle it out at the front of their MXGP and MX2 classes in whatever weather hits the St Jean D’Angely circuit.

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MX2 Qualification Race

1. Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), 23:50.247; 2. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:07.927; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:13.823; 4. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:14.210; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:19.146; 6. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:20.004; 7. Valerio Lata (ITA, Honda), +0:28.131; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:39.531; 9. Cas Valk (NED, KTM), +0:40.976; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +0:43.446;

SUNDAY:
08:45 EMX125 Race 2, 09:25 MX2 Warm-up, 09:45 MXGP Warm-up, 10:30 EMX250 Race 2, 12:15 MX2 Race 1, 13:15 MXGP Race 1, 15:10 MX2 Race 2, 16:10 MXGP Race 2.