Monster Energy Yamaha’s Glenn Coldenhoff finally reach the top three of 2022 MXGP with 3rd position overall at last weekend’s Grand Prix of Sardinia. The Dutchman is the third (and final) member of the factory squad to take a trophy this year as speculation builds over the veteran’s place in the team for 2023.
Coldenhoff is nearing the end of a two-season stint with Yamaha in which both the 31-year-old – now in the premier class for eight years and who has won races with Suzuki, KTM and GASGAS – and Yamaha will be disappointed with the return of just three podium finishes since the beginning of 2021.
#259 was signed by Louis Vosters’ outfit to join Jeremy Seewer to contend for the title but classified 7th in 2021 and is currently 5th in the ’22 standings after eight of twenty rounds. The star of the 2018 Motocross of Nations at RedBud has clearly struggled to replicate his past speed in MXGP with the YZ450FM but admitted that he has been overshadowed by Seewer and rookie Maxime Renaux.
“I’ve been struggling with myself,” he said on Sunday in Sardinia. “I had arm-pump at the beginning of the year but we did some testing. It worked out, but I cannot say what it was because we changed so many things! It went upwards from Argentina [but] it’s been a tough road. I know I can do it. I believe in myself and I believe I can win. Mentally it is tough when things don’t go your way.”
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Coldenhoff went 7-2 for the rostrum in Sardinia after having taken 10th overall the previous weekend in Maggiora; both weekends he was fighting off the effects of illness.
“It is definitely hard,” he added. “I have two very competitive teammates and they have done a great job so far. Last week [in Maggiora] they were both on the podium and I was back there somewhere so that was not so fun.”
Paddock gossip links Coldenhoff to a third return to the Standing Construct team, now running the factory Husqvarna effort after racing in orange and GASGAS red in recent years.
Words: Adam Wheeler
Pic: Yamaha Racing
