Third place for Fernandez in strong Latvia showing

Team HRC’s Ruben Fernandez had an excellent day all-round at the MXGP of Latvia, posting third place finishes in each of the three sessions, including the points-scoring qualification race at the end of the day, on this tricky Kegums track.

In 2022, this was the venue for Fernandez’s first ever MXGP podium and as soon as the riders took to the track, it looked like the Spaniard would be up front challenging for another one this year. He led the majority of the free practice session before his lap was eventually beaten near the end, but he maintained that speed in the timed practice, posting a time just 0.6 seconds off from the fastest.

That laptime gave him third gate-pick for the qualification race where the #70 showed the full power of his Honda CRF450R by ripping the holeshot on this ‘hard sand’ surface. Unfortunately, he was edged out of the lead pretty soon afterwards, but he was still well-positioned and looking to pounce should the new leader make a mistake. Instead, an error himself on the second lap allowed another rider through and once again Fernandez found himself in third. Despite pressuring the riders in front, he wasn’t able to make any moves and rode out the end of the race very comfortably, giving him eight more championship points and moving him up from fourth to third in the MXGP standings.

Although rain is forecast tomorrow, it would take a lot to affect the conditions too drastically as this sandy terrain was able to soak up today’s showers without any problem. That means that Fernandez will head into tomorrow’s GP-scoring motos knowing that if he performs at a similar level, he will be challenging at the very front of the field and looking to add to his two podiums so far this year.