Jorge Prado was on fire all weekend in Spain. The Spaniard maybe had his best ever performance on a 450 and totally dominated all weekend going 1-1-1 with three holeshots. Prado didn’t appear to put a wheel out of line depsite the technical and rutted circuit with speed that even Gajser, Febvre and Herlings couldn’t match despite starting right behind him in race two.
Prado looked behind him over the triple on lap one of race two to see his title rivals on his tail, it was game on and he knew it. He put his head down and pulled away with a pace no-one else could match and a smooth, silky style reminiscent of Stefan Everts. After a long weekend with his adoring public and lots of media events, Prado still delivered under the pressure on and off the track. We are withnessing prime Prado right now and if he is going to America in 2025, MXGP fans need to appreciate what they are watching trackside this season.
This is what he had to say about his dream weekend and his AMA supercross experience.
Pretty much the perfect day for a rider of your level to have the Spanish crowd with you all weekend and to go 1-1-1, it must be something dreams are made of!?
Yeah, I mean this weekend was just perfect winning every single session and I was just the best so super, super happy about it. Super good riding, felt good all weekend long and can’t complain.
What’s the adrenaline like? I saw you yesterday, you looked across at the crowd on the first lap over the big trip people what’s the adrenalin like when you’re leading on that first lap on the crowd cheering you on with the holshot?
It’s nice, it’s a nice feeling with everybody here ready to support me so I got a deliver too, you know it puts a little bit of pressure on me but I could deal very good with it and make it happen, get the victory at home and it was just a perfect day. I mean after a day like today, after a weekend like this, I’m pretty much speechless. My riding has been on point and just everything.
Is this the best you’ve ever been on a 450 because I don’t even think you made a mistake today and is this the fastest you’ve been? You’re actually showing us your real speed this year?
Yeah, I think I’m getting better and better, so I think this is the start of something. Like I said, last year was already a very good year, very consistent. I think this year we are in better, even faster, so hopefully we can keep this progression and get even better.
I was speaking to Stefan Everts he raced supercross early in 92 and he said it made him more aggressive and faster for GPs, do you feel that’s what’s helped you coming into mxgp with your supercross or what specifically improved?
You know, I get this question a lot and I think it’s more about freshness. I just did something completely different this winter and it helps me to keep enjoying what I do and um yeah I mean try you know when you write super it’s so much different to motocross. You get try to learn new things and these things that you learn you can maybe transfer into motocross, so maybe maybe it helped me I think. I mean I’m ready to go so for sure.
What did you enjoy most about your Supercross experience? You had mud you had triple crowns, you had dry Anaheim one – it was all a lot coming at you really quickly!
Yeah it was pretty much two out of the four races I did were on the mud so Anaheim one everything was very new. Anaheim two, it was the last one and was a triple crown so I got a bit of everything but dry are the best! It’s a totally different world, so yeah it’s it was cool/
What do you enjoy more about America compared to GPs and what do you enjoy more about GPs compared to America?
Well more about GPs than America, I think the fact that I know pretty much everything, how everything works, right? I know if I I have a race in the sand in next weeks I got to train sand if I race on hard pack I get to train hard pack and I know the tracks, I know where to go and I I feel very good with my team so I think that’s a very big (factor). America, I just feel like just the whole Championship puts the riders in another level and the competition, it’s just different because it’s supercross, we don’t ride supercross over here, so we are totally new there.
But I think it’s cool that the championship you know tries to get the best out of every single rider and put so much time and effort to put that rider to the next level and try to make like star out of rider and I think that’s quite cool. (Also) just how the format the program of everything, I like it one day format and it’s just a little bit like a show there, so it’s just different.
The media and all, it seems like you seem to get a lot of respect from the other riders, even Jett congratulated you I saw at Anaheim for your performance, is that nice to get that not just the respect but people seem to enjoy having you over?
Yeah, I was actually surprised and super happy about how everybody responded when I was there, also about the media really you know got involved with me and they were really kind to me, also the championship so it was cool. It was cool for me, it was a good time, they made it more fun, they made it more cool and I just enjoyed it.
You probably can’t say but do you know what you’re doing next year or are you still negotiating or making a decision right now?
I’m super focused on MXGP and that’s my only goal, keep winning like this weekend and that’s my goal.
Just on your technique, it looks like you can put the bike anywhere you want. Do you feel like you’re just always in control of the bike no matter how fast you’re going because it looks like you’ve just incredible control of of a motorcycle!
Well, I think that that bike allows me to do it more now, with being a few years ago struggling a lot with the bike, I really didn’t really feel like it. I’m still the same rider, it’s just that the bike it’s allowing me to do what I want to do and now it’s getting to that level where it’s starting to feel like comfortable and starting to feel like know I can play with it and, when I can do that, I can do races like today. So yeah, we still have room to improve, so it’s cool.
You’re looking today like it was an MX2 race from four years ago – is that how you felt? You look so confident and so happy and relaxed even though it’s your home GP!
Yeah, I think yesterday and in the first moto today, it felt kind of like that. Second moto Tim was just behind me and they were pushing hard, but I still could manage the gaps. The level is super hard, super high, so full respect to all these guys they’re super fast.
Interview: Jonathan McCready
Image: JPA
