Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1400350
Gajser Back On Top In Latvia T he seventh round of the 2021 FIM Motocross World Championship played out in Kegums, August 8, with MXGP and MX2 Championship leaders Tim Gajser and Maxime Renaux taking overall victories to extend their lead in the series standings before the championship begins a three-week break. Gajser used two second-place finishes to lock up the overall vic- tory in the MXGP class. The Hon- da HRC rider got a little lucky in race two when first-moto winner Jeffery Herlings went down on the last lap while challenging his Red Bull KTM teammate Jorge Prado for the lead and moto win. While running third, Gajser gladly accepted the gift from Herlings and crossed the finish line in second place for the overall vic- tory, which comes as a bit of a relief for him after having seen his once large points lead rapidly shrink the past few rounds. "That was the goal for today, just to have two solid starts," Gajser said. "I was riding well, didn't make any mistakes, I was consistent, and we managed. Of course, we had a little bit of luck with Jeffrey going down on the last lap but super happy about the day. It's good to go into the summer break with the overall and work hard to improve some things to make sure I am strong in the next GPs, so I'm really look- ing forward to coming back to Turkey as I really like the track. "In the last couple of weeks, I was just adding too much pres- sure onto myself, so today I just said to myself, 'just enjoy it and have fun.' I really don't want to look at the championship, as it's still early in the season, but I just want to focus on each GP." Prado was second on the day. After running up front and rubbing elbows with his veteran teammate Antonio Cairoli a few times in the first moto to take fourth, Prado came back to win the second moto in the rain and take second overall. "Today was a great day espe- cially that last race win of the day, it's a good feeling," Prado said. "I'm definitely feeling stronger and stronger which is very posi- tive. Since Loket, I have been improving a lot and now I have some weeks to get even better physically which has been my weakest point so far this season. "In the first race, I struggled a lot with the rhythm," Prado added. "These guys were push- ing really hard, and I just couldn't find the good lines and made it hard for myself. In the second race, I knew the start would be important with the weather. I got behind Romain [Febvre] and tried to attack, but I made a small mis- take, then a couple of laps later IN THE WIND P28 After seeing his points lead shrink the past few rounds, Tim Gajser stopped the bleeding by winning the MXGP of Latvia with a 2-2. PHOTO: @SHOTBYBAVO.