HRC’s Tim Gajser narrowly missed out on the podium at the Mataram track, but still retains a healthy lead in the 2024 MXGP World Championship.
Gajser’s three-five results saw him miss out on third place due to the second-moto tie-breaker, in what was a tough day of racing for the five-time world champion. After a third in yesterday’s qualification race, he used his third gate-pick to excellent advantage, starting well in both races, including a race two holeshot. However, on what was a difficult track, the Slovenian was unable to capitalise as much as he would have liked and instead leaves the circuit ruing what might have been.
In a largely uneventful race one, Gajser held onto a third place, comfortably ahead of P4 but not quite being able to stay in touch with the leaders. Although this lonely race did allow him to save some energy for the second moto where the #243 looked much more positive.
After the holeshot, he did run a little wide and that allowed two riders through, but he soon got back into second place and started stalking the leader. A mistake then allowed him through to first position but as the sun became a problem, the bumpy terrain started causing some issues and he made a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes. As he crossed the line in fifth place, his 36-point tally wasn’t quite good enough for the podium, but he does have a 22-point advantage in the standings which he takes into next weekend, when the series returns to the Mataram circuit for the second of the two rounds to be held here, but on what is said to be a changed layout.
Gajser: Things didn’t go my way today, on what was quite a difficult track. I couldn’t find a good rhythm in race one and just had to settle for third place. Race two started a lot better, including getting the holeshot but I ran a bit wide and let a couple of guys through. I then fought hard in the first few laps and got myself back into the lead, but a couple of mistakes and I ended up finishing fifth. It’s not where I want to be, but I had five days to recuperate and then we go again next weekend.
Zanchi: Definitely a learning experience this weekend, with just being a completely different type of event than in Europe. I am happy to be here though and I’m happy with how I rode in that second moto, to fight hard and show a bit more of what I am capable of. I know that I need to get those sort of starts in every race and if I can do that, I can see that I’m getting closer and closer to finishing with the top guys.
Marcus de Freitas: It wasn’t the end result we wanted, but we know that Tim will do his best to make sure it doesn’t happen again next weekend, and we’ll be here to help him achieve that. He still has a good lead in the championship and we’re sure that when we come back here in five days’ time, he will be motivated to try and extend that further.
It was good to see Ferruccio putting in a good start and battling with the best MX2 riders in that second moto. It is important to see a reaction after a tough race one, and he showed that he can really put things together in what are very difficult conditions. Hopefully he’ll have a good few days and be able to do the same again in the second event of this Indonesian double-header.
