Guillem Farres enjoyed a weekend to remember at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Agueda, taking the second overall victory of his MX2 World Championship career in emphatic fashion. The Spaniard swept the weekend with a perfect 1-1-1 scorecard, winning the qualifying race before winning both motos for the first clean sweep of his World Championship career.
The Triumph Racing rider continues to gather momentum in what is proving to be a breakthrough campaign. With consistent speed across a variety of track conditions, Farres has firmly established himself as a genuine MX2 title contender and now sitting 32 points behind championship leader Sacha Coenen.
Speaking to Marco Kamper after the race weekend, Farres explained why he felt so comfortable around Agueda and praised both the circuit and his Triumph machine.
“I mean, I like the track, I was having a lot of fun, but I think I’m a better rider when there’s ruts and stuff. Even though this track is awesome, it’s a nice track, it’s wide, big jumps, so no, it’s great. My Triumph is working really well, that’s why we haven’t touched it in so many rounds so it’s a big relief to go to the gate knowing that my bike is going to perform”.
He also discussed the different bike setup the team has developed for the deep sand circuits later in the season.
“We have a whole different bike for sand, but that’s already tested also. We proved that in real, the bike is in a good spot also in the sand. We only use that bike on the heavy, heavy sand. Let’s say Riola, Lommel, Arnhem. For tracks like Latvia, I’m still on my hardback setup with a bit of different setup”.
Although speculation about a future move to MXGP is inevitable, the 23-year-old insists his focus remains firmly on the current season.
“I have to step it up next year because I’m 23. Right now I’m just focused on the MX2 World Championship. I haven’t ridden a 450cc yet. Every time I go on the gate I have the same goal and obviously it’s to win, but I’m also trying to take it smart race by race. We know it’s hard to win every single weekend so it’s just minimising the damage”.
Competing in Portugal also carried extra significance for the Spaniard thanks to the support he received from family and friends.
“It feels like a home race here in Portugal. I have my family here, I have my friends, so it was great, it felt like a home race being here”.
During the post-race press conference, Farres reflected on achieving his first-ever perfect Grand Prix weekend and the confidence he has in his package.
“I feel great, it’s always really nice to get a perfect weekend, my first ever perfect weekend, so it’s great. Portugal GP is also special for me, it’s close to Spain, so I have my family here and a bunch of friends. It was a great weekend overall, it feels nice to go into a GP and knowing that we have a good base set up. I haven’t changed a thing the whole weekend, so that gives me a lot of extra confidence when riding”.
That confidence has been built through months of development during the off-season, with the Spaniard revealing just how little he has needed to alter his bike throughout the championship.
“I’ve been feeling great on the bike, we did a lot of work in the winter. For some reason I missed some testing, we had a little bit of a delay and I had to do it right before Riola. But for Riola we also had a good set up. Every time I ride a hardpack track like Montevarchi last weekend, I think I haven’t touched a single clicker in the whole year. That’s great, just getting to focus on my riding and my lines, it’s awesome”
Despite celebrating victory in Portugal, Farres admitted he was still frustrated by what happened at the previous round in Montevarchi, where a mistake cost him the chance to fight for the win. However, he believes limiting the damage on difficult weekends is what will separates the championship contenders from champions.
“The most important is not winning every weekend, everything is easier on your good days. On the bad days, it’s when the real champion shows up, you have to minimise those bad days. I was just a little bit mad last week in Montevarchi because I felt like I couldn’t battle again up front. I made a mistake in the first lap, I went down and I ruined my chances. I was just mad about that”.
Although Agueda wasn’t the deeply-rutted circuit he naturally prefers, Farres is confident he now has the speed to fight at the front regardless of the conditions.
“I like it more when we have deep ruts and stuff but I’ve been feeling great. Last week I was also pretty fast in Montevarchi and there were no ruts. I’m just trying to be fast in every surface”.
With confidence growing, a settled bike underneath him and valuable championship points continuing to come his way, Farres is emerging as one of the standout riders in MX2. If he can continue combining outright speed with the consistency he has spoken so highly of, the Spaniard looks set to remain firmly in the title fight for the remainder of the season.
