MXGP
Team HRC riders Tim Gajser and Ruben Fernandez had mixed results on a rescheduled race-day in Shanghai, China. With a typhoon hitting the area tomorrow, the timetable was made into a one-day format with a very early start and no breaks, making life even more difficult in temperatures over 35 Celsius.

Unfortunately for Gajser, his day got off to the worse possible start in the motos as he was involved in a second-turn crash that immediately dropped him to the back of the pack. From there, he quickly regrouped and was charging through the field, before he got involved in another incident that dropped him down to 15^th again. Once again, he made a number of passes before damage, as a result from that second incident, meant he could only cruise around the Shanghai circuit and he dropped down to finish in 17^th place.

That meant he lost the virtual red-plate for the first time since round nine in Latvia, with the deficit of four points heading into race two. He got a much better start this time out and quickly was into second place, but although he pressured the leader, he couldn’t find a way around and had to settle for second and is now seven points behind in the 2024 MXGP Championship, with one round remaining.

Teammate Fernandez had a much better time of things, with the Spaniard getting a season-best fourth overall in just his third round back after injury. Getting a great start in race one, he made a couple of quick passes to lead the field round on the first lap. Showing excellent speed, he then held off the best motocross riders on the planet for half of the moto, before eventually succumbing to the pressure to finish fourth. Knowing that a podium was within his grasp, he once again got another good start and was battling in third position for the majority of the race, before once again showing that his endurance isn’t quite there after missing almost six months of the season. Still, his fifth place in race two, gave him fourth overall and another big confidence boost as he heads in to the final round of the championship, which is being held in his home country of Spain on September 28-29.

MX2
Ferruccio Zanchi’s day in China had a familiar feel to it as the youngster struggled with starts but then fought his way back around the top 10 positions. With temperatures much different than back in Europe right now, it was a tough adjustment for the Italian to suddenly race in 35 Celsius weather, but he acquitted himself admirably and showed once again that he never gives up. With just one round left in Spain, in a couple of weeks’ time, the Honda CRF250R rider will be hoping to finish the season on a high and show everyone that the quick promotion to the MX2 class was well-deserved and that he has a very bright future ahead of him.

Tim Gajser 243 "After having such a consistent season, to have a day like today at such a crucial time is hard to take. To lose the championship red-plate with one round left is definitely not what I wanted to happen and now I know that with three races to go, I have to win them all. It isn’t an ideal situation but I will keep fighting and give my all until the very end."

Ruben Fernandez 70 "It felt really good to lead some laps in the first moto and I am really happy with my progress since coming back into the series. To get fourth overall is ahead of where I expected to be, and it gives me a lot of confidence heading into the final round in Spain where I hope to be challenging for the podium. My starts were good and my riding was strong for most of the races in what were very difficult conditions, so very happy."

Ferruccio Zanchi 73 "Difficult weekend but there were still some positives with my riding here in China. I got 10th overall, which isn’t where I wanted to be coming into the weekend, but with all the changes in the schedule and the weather conditions it became a very difficult day. I kept pushing though and it was good to experience the race here and having done all the overseas now, it has certainly given me a lot of things I know I can improve upon."

Marcus Pereira de Freitas HRC General Manager - MXGP "It was a disappointing day for Tim, on what has been a strange event here in China. To go from two days, to one day, and then with a really tight schedule change late yesterday made things difficult to plan for but the team did a great job adapting. Unfortunately, the first moto really didn’t go well, as almost straight away he was involved in a second turn crash and from there it was difficult. Then to have the damage issue midway through the race meant he could only cruise round and that lost a lot of points. He regrouped really well to finish second in the second moto and now we head to Spain knowing that we have to win races in order to win the championship at the last round." "Ruben rode really well and is showing the speed we knew he had at the beginning of the season, before the injury. We knew these conditions would really test his fitness but he showed great toughness and thoroughly deserved his fourth overall. Spain should be a really good weekend for him." "And Ferro also showed his determination to keep plugging away and getting himself as close to the top 10 as possible. This has been a really impressive feature of his rides this year and having now almost completed a full MX2 season, he just hasn’t stopped working."