Honda HRC looking to create better memories in Cozar

The second round of the 2025 MXGP World Championship takes place in Cozar, in the Castilla La Mancha region on Spain, where the 2024 season-finale took place, a venue that doesn’t hold many happy memories for the Honda HRC team.

For Tim Gajser, it is the circuit where he lost out on his sixth world title after coming up just short over the course of the weekend, but the Slovenian has put that behind him and is now focusing on this year’s title-challenge which got off to a solid start in Argentina last time out. Third place finishes in all three points-scoring races over the weekend sees him in third position in the championship and while he would have liked to have won races, he knows that it’s a long season and he has plenty of opportunities to stand on the top step of the podium, and doing that in Cozar would banish a lot of 2024’s events.

Spaniard Ruben Fernandez also didn’t enjoy himself at this brand-new circuit in Spain last time out. He couldn’t find a good rhythm and wasn’t able to challenge at the top end of the field, so he’d love to do better in front of his home supporters this time out. Like Argentina, the #70 will be one of the most popular riders on the circuit and it’s something Fernandez is getting used to, especially as there are also races in Lugo and Portugal coming up on the calendar, and he really wants to reward all that support with good results.

One bright spot from 2024 in Cozar was Ferruccio Zanchi’s performance, as the young Italian had his highest points tally of the season at this round. It was the best possible ending to his rookie MX2 season and gave him a big boost heading into the off-season. Unfortunately, things didn’t go his way in Argentina, but he is looking to bounce back strongly this weekend, and this track gives him a great opportunity to do so.

Like new teammate Gajser, Valerio Lata also had championship heartbreak in Cozar at the end of 2024. The Italian lost out on the EMX250 title despite finishing second overall, and while he can’t get that moment back, a strong showing this time around will go a long way to forgetting about that race and also impressing his new bosses in Honda HRC. Mixed results in Argentina proceeded an impressive showing in an Italian Championship event last weekend and he’ll be heading to the circuit a couple of hours south of Madrid highly motivated to mix up with the best MX2 riders in the world.

Unfortunately the area has had some bad weather in the lead-up to this race, but the excitement is growing nevertheless and all four riders are motivated to improve upon their Argentina efforts.

TIMETABLE
SATURDAY:
07:35 EMX125 Group 1 Free Practice, 08:00 EMX125 Group 2 Free Practice, 08:25 EMX250 Group 1 Free Practice, 08:50 EMX250 Group 2 Free Practice, 09:15 EMX125 Group 1 Qualifying Practice, 09:50 EMX125 Group 2 Qualifying Practice, 10:25 MX2 Free Practice, 10:55 MXGP Free Practice, 11:55 EMX250 Group 1 Qualifying Practice, 12:35 EMX250 Group 2 Qualifying Practice, 13:15 MX2 Time Practice, 13:50 MXGP Time Practice, 14:35 EMX125 Race 1, 15:25 EMX250 Race 1, 16:20 MX2 Qualifying Race, 17:10 MXGP Qualifying Race.

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.