With his 6–3 finish in Almonte, Tim Gajser secured a podium at the Grand Prix of Spain — his first in blue. Fourth in Argentina, third in Spain, the Slovenian rider is making progress on the 450 YZ-F, a bike he is still getting to know in race conditions.
“I felt more and more comfortable as the weekend went on,” explained Tim Gajser on Sunday evening after the Spanish GP. “On Saturday, I really struggled. My first moto on Sunday wasn’t great. We made big changes to the bike. We’re still testing quite a lot of things in race conditions. I felt much better in the second moto, so that’s positive.”
Running near the back end of the top 10 on the opening lap of both motos at the Spanish Grand Prix, Tim Gajser had to work hard in each race to claim his first podium of the season. The win, however, was far ahead: Lucas Coenen finished 53 seconds ahead of him in the first moto and 24 seconds ahead in the second.
“My starts didn’t help me this weekend. In both motos, I came out outside the top 10,” analyzed the Slovenian rider, who got jostled off the gate this weekend. “I had to make a lot of passes in the second moto. I was able to carry more speed and attack the track a bit more. I’m happy to finish on the podium because I feel we’ve made progress in the right direction. I hope we can keep this momentum going. But really, my starts weren’t good this weekend. And when you come out behind, you quickly get boxed in by other riders in the first corner. When you’re stuck at the back, in the sand, in turn one, things get complicated fast. There are still many areas where we can improve and keep working. We’ll keep pushing in that direction to try to make progress.”
On the demanding Almonte track, it was hard to find the right setup balance, especially since the factory Yamaha rider is still adapting to his new machine, learning more about it every time he rides.
“Regarding the changes, we’re mainly talking about the suspension. That’s more or less the most important part. Especially on a track like this weekend’s, which was really beaten up. I think it was the same for everyone — it was hard to get the bike set up properly. You had to compromise because there were big, fairly hard bumps on one side, and a soft track with sand waves on the other. Gaining on one side meant losing on the other. We struggled a bit with that. But still, I think we’ve made progress and we’re heading in the right direction. We’ll try to take another step forward in Switzerland.”
For now, Tim Gajser is still far from his expectations and doesn’t hide it. This first podium in Spain is a step in the right direction, but — on paper — the factory Yamaha rider was far from being able to fight for the win, or even second place. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
“When you’ve won as many Grands Prix as I have, you naturally aim for victory. But you also have to stay realistic. For us, Argentina was the first real test. It was a proper race, a full race weekend. The track was tough, and maybe we weren’t as ready as we should have been. But we’re working on it. Of course, we would’ve liked to have had two more months on the bike before the season started. We would have preferred to begin testing in October to get two extra months to adapt to the bike and everything. But I’m not making excuses. Jeffrey Herlings and I are in the same position — we didn’t have much time this winter. But I feel like we’re gradually getting closer to where we need to be.”
