Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team’s Tim Gajser has finished fourth overall at MXGP round 17 to narrowly miss out on a podium finish. The Yamaha YZ450FM racer was competitive all weekend in Afyonkarahisar, qualifying third, then placing second and fourth across the two Grand Prix races.
After crashing heavily at the previous round in The Netherlands two weeks ago, Gajser arrived in Türkiye still feeling the effects of the incident. However, once on track, the five-time world champion was soon up to speed and he featured at the top of the time sheets on Saturday before delivering two strong rides in the Grand Prix races.
In the opening race, Gajser started well in third and moved into second in turn two. From there he gave chase to Jeffrey Herlings in first but couldn’t find a way into the lead. At the end of the race, Gajser crossed the finish line in second, just under four seconds behind Herlings.
Gajser delivered another excellent start in Race Two and slotted into third. However, just before the conclusion of lap two, a small mistake caused him to lose two places. A couple of laps later, the 29-year-old was back up to fourth but couldn’t advance any further. With the overall points tallied up, Gajser tied on 40 points with Tom Vialle and Romain Febvre, who ultimately placed second and third respectively. Gajser missed out on the podium due to his Race Two result.
With a challenging Grand Prix complete, Gajser will continue to recover from his crash at the previous round before turning his attention to the MXGP of China next weekend.
Tim Gajser
4th MXGP of Türkiye, 40-points
3rd MXGP Championship Standings, 659-points
“Considering the condition I’m in, this weekend wasn’t too bad. The speed was there, but I was riding in a lot of pain, so overall I feel like it was a decent weekend. It’s a shame about the second moto. I was third, but I made a small mistake and went off the track, which allowed two guys to pass me. I tried to push again, but I made another small mistake and the track was getting quite sketchy. The pain was also getting worse, so I decided to settle for fourth. I’m definitely disappointed because we missed out on the podium, and I think we deserved it this weekend, but that’s motocross. We don’t have much time before the next round, so I’ll try to recover as much as possible before China.”
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