Gajser wins Lombardia qualification as Evans makes positive steps

Team HRC’s Tim Gajser made another impressive statement in the qualification race at the MXGP of Lombardia, winning it comfortably and proving that when he has the right setup for his Honda CRF450R, he is very tough to beat.
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Gajser wins Lombardia qualification as Evans makes positive steps

Qualifying Report

Saturday, Mar 5th 2022

MXGP of Lombardia

MXGP 2022 Round 2

Gajser wins Lombardia qualification as Evans makes positive steps

Team HRC’s Tim Gajser made another impressive statement in the qualification race at the MXGP of Lombardia, winning it comfortably and proving that when he has the right setup for his Honda CRF450R, he is very tough to beat.

Throughout the day, the Mantova track was tricking riders as the usual sand track was showing a much tougher look, due to the lack of rain and sunny weather. As a result, grip and throttle control was at a premium and it meant that as Gajser tried to find the right settings, he was only able to post the fifth fastest lap in timed practice. This gave him fifth gate pick for the qualifying race, but a good start soon saw him in the top three, and within a lap, he was in the lead. From there he posted the fastest laptime of the race and pulled out a comfortable gap, crossing the chequered flag over seven seconds ahead of second place, giving him first gate-pick for the two motos on Sunday.

Mitch Evans was looking to build upon his results from round one in Matterley Basin and it was immediately evident that the Australian was in a much stronger position this weekend. At one stage of timed practice, he was fastest, before eventually dropping to eighth, but that was still a big improvement from the previous weekend. With this boost of confidence, he rocketed around the first corner of the qualifying race, only just missing out on the holeshot. He then battled hard through the first few laps as he tried to regain all the race craft he lost from his 15-month injury absence. Unfortunately, a technical issue meant that he had to pull into the pits soon after, when he was inside the top 10, so that dropped him right down the field, but he was still able to do good laptimes and if he can get a good start from the outside gate-pick, he’ll be hoping for more improvement in tomorrow’s races.

In this two-day format, they’ll now have a morning warm-up session at 9:45 before the moto gate-drops at 13:15 and 16:10 where Gajser will be looking to make it two overall wins in a row and retain the red-plate he won at round one.

Tim Gajser ²⁴³

It was a good qualifying race, but I definitely struggled earlier in the day to get to grips with the track. Thankfully I got a good start in the qualifying race and was able to make a couple of quick passes and really control the race. This gives me a first gate-pick for tomorrow and that is important as this track isn’t so easy to make passes on. Thanks to all my fans who have made the trip here already and I hope to see and hear a lot more supporters tomorrow, for the main races.

Mitch Evans ⁴³

Already I was coming into this weekend with a lot more confidence and the first free practice reenforced my feeling that it was going to go a lot better. I felt more comfortable the whole day and it was really nice to back battling with the guys at the front of the field for a couple of laps in the qualification race. Unfortunately, I had a bike issue which meant I had to pull into the pits while it got fixed but even though I wasn’t able to make up any positions when I re-joined the race, I still wanted to get the laps in and keep making progress, both mentally and physically. Obviously I won’t have a good gate-pick tomorrow but I feel like I can definitely improve upon my results from last week.

Marcus Pereira de Freitas

HRC General Manager – MXGP

It was a good day today, with Tim once again showing he is the rider to beat in this MXGP class. He wasn’t at his best in the morning sessions but we found the right settings for the race and he looked extremely comfortable, pulling away to take an easy win. Mitch also showed improvement and looked a lot more confident this time around, and although he didn’t get the end result he deserved today, we are hopeful he can put in two strong motos tomorrow.

Qualifying

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Team	Constructor	Time/Gap
1	Gajser Tim	243	SLO	Team HRC – MXGP	Honda	25:32.894
2	Seewer Jeremy	91	SWI	Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team	Yamaha	0:07.183
3	Prado Garcia Jorge	61	SPA	Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing	GasGas	0:17.317
4	Kjer Olsen Thomas	19	DEN	Team Diga-Procross	KTM	0:18.326
5	Renaux Maxime	959	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team	Yamaha	0:18.396
6	Bogers Brian	189	NDL	Standing Construct Husqvarna Factory Racing Team	Husqvarna	0:23.769
7	Van Horebeek Jeremy	89	BEL	Beta SDM Corse MX Team	Beta	0:26.759
8	Forato Alberto	303	ITA	SM Action Racing Team Yuasa Battery	GasGas	0:31.306
9	Jasikonis Arminas	27	LTU	Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing	Yamaha	0:33.498
10	Coldenhoff Glenn	259	NDL	Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team	Yamaha	0:35.519
11	Beaton Jed	14	AUS	F&H Racing Team	Kawasaki	0:36.163
12	Lupino Alessandro	77	ITA	Beta SDM Corse MX Team	Beta	0:40.779
13	Jonass Pauls	41	LAT	Standing Construct GasGas Factory Racing Team	GasGas	0:42.655
14	Tixier Jordi	911	FRA	JT911 KTM Racing Team	KTM	0:43.667
15	Watson Ben	919	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP	Kawasaki	0:44.936
16	van Doninck Brent	32	BEL	Riley Racing	Yamaha	0:45.445
17	Jacobi Henry	29	GER	JM Honda Racing	Honda	0:45.728
18	Locurcio Lorenzo	183	VEN	JD Gunnex KTM Racing Team	KTM	0:57.490
19	Brylyakov Vsevolod	18	RUS	JWR Honda Racing	Honda	1:01.895
20	Zaragoza Jorge	199	SPA	Team Ausio Yamaha Yamalube Maxxis	Yamaha	1:07.412

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