Both Tim Gajser and Roan van de Moosdijk will be hoping to improve their results as they head to the fourth round of the 2024 MXGP World Championship, which takes place at the picturesque mountainside track in Pietramurata, Trentino, Italy.
For Gajser, who has been runner-up in the three rounds so far this year, that means taking victory at a track that has been good to him in the past. The Slovenian has won here four times in the past, and as such, will be hoping to make it five as he looks to close up the points battle at the top of the championship standings. With the circuit only being a few hours from the border, a lot of fans are expected to come from his homeland and fill out ‘Gajser Corner’ for the duration of the weekend, supporting their hero in their usual passionate manner.
MXGP newcomer v/d Moosdijk has lesser expectations, but they are still important as he looks to get himself onto the championship scoreboard after missing out in Riola Sardo. The lack of preparation caught up with #39, who only signed with the team in the week leading up to that race, but having now had a few more sessions on the bike, he is feeling much better about his chances in Pietramurata.
Unfortunately, Ferruccio Zanchi is missing from the MX2 class once again as his injury is keeping him on the sidelines for a little while longer, joining the absent Ruben Fernandez who is recovering from knee surgery a couple of weeks ago. The young Italian missed Sardinia, but will now have until May 4th, before the following round in Portugal, which should be enough to see him back to 100% and ready to continue his excellent start to his rookie MX2 campaign.
Tim Gajser 243
I am always excited to ride in Trentino. It is the closest race that I have to a ‘home’ GP and I know a lot of fans will make the trip from Slovenia to come and see me ride. While it isn’t necessarily my favourite circuit, I do like racing here purely because of the energy from the fans and just how loud and intense it can be. It also holds a lot of good memories for me and I’m excited to try and add to that this weekend.
Roan van de Moosdijk 39
It’s never a good feeling to have to pull off a racetrack, but I truly believe the short-term pain will allow me to progress much better in the longer-term. Already this week, we’ve had a couple of really good training sessions and made some solid progress on hard-pack tracks so I’m heading to Trentino in a much better position than I was before. It seems like it should be another hot one, but this circuit definitely isn’t as physically demanding as Riola Sardo so I’m feeling much more confident and looking forward to having better results this weekend.
Marcus Pereira de Freitas
HRC General Manager – MXGP
Heading to Trentino and you can really see just how difficult it is to be a world championship motocross rider as one week it is deep sand near the beach dunes and now, we’re heading to a hard-pack track in the mountains. Tim has shown good speed in every type of terrain and we know that he has done well in Trentino in the past, so we are going to try and make sure he can do so again. For Roan, he has reacted well since Riola Sardo and put that disappointment behind him and is fully-focused on putting together three good races across the two days.
Words: Press Release
Image: Shot by Bavo
