Round two offers optimism and redemption for Team HRC

Preview Report

Thursday, Mar 3rd 2022

MXGP of Lombardia (ITA)

MXGP 2022 Round 17

Round two offers optimism and redemption for Team HRC

Mantova, Italy is host for the second round of the 2022 motocross world championship, which is a track that both Tim Gajser and Mitch Evans are very familiar with.

Over the past few years, the sandy circuit in northern Italy has hosted a lot of races, as double-headers, triple-headers and even preseason races have taken place there, with Team HRC having both good and bad memories from these events.

Most recently were the deciding rounds of the 2021 season when the #243 closely missed out on what would have been his fifth world title. Instead, he had to console himself with finishing third in the championship, with that result now providing motivation to come out swinging for these opening rounds in 2022 – which is exactly what he did at Matterley Basin last weekend.

At the MXGP of Great Britain, Gajser won the first moto, coming through the field and overtaking all of his title rivals in a great display of speed and race craft. The second moto followed a similar pattern, but an unfortunate mistake a few laps from the end, saw him slip to second, but it was still enough to win the overall and give him the red-plate for this round in Mantova, and he’ll be hoping to repeat that feat when the gate drops this Sunday.

For teammate Evans, the goals are a bit different as the Australian is still coming back from his injury nightmare, but he has won at Mantova in 2020 at the Internazionali d’Italia, so he will at least be racing a circuit he is comfortable on. With each track session, confidence grows and slowly but surely, he will get back to the form that saw him challenging for podiums and top five results.

In the 2022, the schedule has returned to the two-day format so they have a free practice, a timed practice and then qualifying race on Saturday, before a warm-up session and then the two motos on Sunday 6^th March.

Tim Gajser ²⁴³

Matterley Basin was a great start to the season, but we know that work still needs to be done and there are always improvements to made. Obviously last year, things didn’t go well in Mantova, however I’ve also had good moments at that track so I’m heading there with a positive frame of mind and looking to build upon the two strong races that I had in Great Britain.

Mitch Evans ⁴³

Obviously when you look at the results, they weren’t the best scores in England, but after everything I’ve gone through in the last 15-months since my last MXGP, this was a big step to have taken. Now I have a starting point, something to build from and while I know I won’t get there right away, the only way is up and that starts in Mantova this weekend. It is a track I have had good results at before so that’s what I’m focusing on, and every time I get on the track, I am just trying to get better and better.

Marcus Pereira de Freitas

HRC General Manager – MXGP

It was a really good way to start 2022, with Tim winning the overall in Great Britain. Everyone in Team HRC has worked hard over this winter to keep up the momentum from last year when Tim was competitive right to the very end. It was also good to see Mitch finishing both races and we want to keep up the progression each race. Mantova will be a much different test as it’s a lot tighter, and the sandy surface can make things tricky, but the weather should be good so let’s hope we can continue moving forward.

Rider Standings

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Points	Team	Constructor
1	Gajser Tim	243	SLO	47	Team HRC – MXGP	Honda
2	Prado Garcia Jorge	61	SPA	43	Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing	GasGas
3	Seewer Jeremy	91	SWI	40	Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team	Yamaha
4	Renaux Maxime	959	FRA	35	Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team	Yamaha
5	Coldenhoff Glenn	259	NDL	32	Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team	Yamaha
6	Beaton Jed	14	AUS	30	F&H Racing Team	Kawasaki
7	Forato Alberto	303	ITA	28	SM Action Racing Team Yuasa Battery	GasGas
8	Kjer Olsen Thomas	19	DEN	24	Team Diga-Procross	KTM
9	Van Horebeek Jeremy	89	BEL	23	Beta SDM Corse MX Team	Beta
10	Bogers Brian	189	NDL	23	Standing Construct Husqvarna Factory Racing Team	Husqvarna
11	Vlaanderen Calvin	10	NDL	19	Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing	Yamaha
12	Watson Ben	919	GBR	18	Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP	Kawasaki
13	Fernandez Ruben	70	SPA	17	Honda 114 Motorsports	Honda
14	Jacobi Henry	29	GER	15	JM Honda Racing	Honda
15	van Doninck Brent	32	BEL	13	Riley Racing	Yamaha
16	Guillod Valentin	92	SWI	10	iXS MXGP Team	Yamaha
17	Östlund Alvin	161	SWE	7	JK Racing Yamaha Active	Yamaha
18	Koch Tom	226	GER	6	KTM Kozak Team	KTM
19	Tixier Jordi	911	FRA	5	JT911 KTM Racing Team	KTM
20	Evans Mitch	43	AUS	4	Team HRC – MXGP	Honda
21	Roosiorg Hardi	75	EST	2	Sahkar KTM Racing	KTM
22	Jasikonis Arminas	27	LTU	1	Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing	Yamaha