The blazing heat of Saturday turned into grey skies and showers at the Schweizer Zucker circuit before today’s MXGP of Switzerland Presented by iXS. Dealing with completely different circuit conditions to those of the RAM Qualifying Races, the World Championship elite nevertheless put on an amazing show of riding skill and determination.
After a difficult few rounds of the FIM Motocross World Championship, red plate holder Tim Gajser seemed to take control of the series again today with two brilliant race wins for Team HRC to rebuild his points lead and assert his authority over his pursuers.
It was a similar story in MX2 as Kay de Wolf took his seventh GP win of the season and saw his Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing teammate Lucas Coenen finish only seventh overall. Simon Laengenfelder celebrated taking the second race victory for Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing and finishing second overall on the day.
As he had done in all of the practice sessions across the weekend, Gajser was again fastest in Warm-Up and looked in determined mood. However, the returning Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP star Maxime Renaux took a stunning holeshot, his first since the opening round in Argentina before the aggravation of his foot injury!
Reigning Champion and Saturday’s RAM Qualifying Race winner Jorge Prado started in second for Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing, with Josh Gilbert briefly in third for Gabriel SS24 KTM. Gajser was clearly on a mission though, and charged around them both to take second around the third corner! Just after the halfway point of the lap the Slovenian forced his way to the inside of the Frenchman to power into the lead, and from there he simply was not going to be caught.
The atmosphere was palpable around the Swiss circuit as the red smoke from the fans’ flares began to disperse, but it reached fever pitch as their home hero Jeremy Seewer, making the 200th consecutive Grand Prix start of his career and looking fast for Kawasaki Racing Team, put pressure on Prado, who had been unable to pick his way past Renaux. The Swiss veteran sent the crowd into raptures as he dived inside the Champ on lap six, who veered off-track momentarily in surprise!
All the time though, Jeffrey Herlings, struggling off the gate all weekend for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, was starting to make his presence felt as he moved forward on a familiar charge through the pack. With a magical show of speed at the end of lap eight, he was able to pass first Prado, then Seewer, within the space of three corners! With blistering pace he caught Renaux two laps later, dealing with him rapidly before eyeing up the near 15-second gap to the leader.
On lap 14, Prado seemed to realise that he was in danger of losing serious points to his title rivals, and with sweet moves along the back straight of the track, he passed both Seewer and Renaux on consecutive laps to keep the damage to a minimum with a third-place finish. Seewer kept the fans happy as he advanced to fourth with the aid of a Renaux mistake before the two-lap board, and that was how the top five finished.
Behind them, Romain Febvre held sixth for Kawasaki Racing Team for almost the entire race, ahead of Fantic Factory Racing’s Glenn Coldenhoff, another local favourite Valentin Guillod in eighth for Team Ship To Cycle Honda Motoblouz SR, and then Alberto Forato, who moved up to ninth for Standing Construct Honda ahead of Slovenian Jan Pancar, taking a fine top ten result for his own TEM JP253 KTM Racing Team.
Gajser managed to keep his advantage over Herlings to the flag, and as the circuit dried for race two his competitors might have worried about his all-out speed that returned with a vengeance this weekend.
Renaux had one possible answer – get the best start possible! Making it a clean sweep of Yamaha holeshots for the day (Spoiler alert – in both classes!), the Frenchman gave us a glimpse of what he might serve up in 2025 as he led the first six laps at a pace that the chasing Prado and Febvre could not live with.
Gajser was not to be denied, however, and recovered from a tenth place start to blast his way into fifth after the first half-lap, with Herlings still languishing in ninth at this stage. The Dutchman marched relentlessly forward, demoting Team HRC’s Ruben Fernandez, Forato, and Coldenhoff on consecutive laps, before railing around Seewer on lap six. Just then, Prado had closed on Renaux and took the lead from the Frenchman, the Spaniard now sitting in a solid position to win the GP overall.
As Febvre and then Gajser worked past Renaux, it was Gajser’s turn to dig in as he attacked Febvre and advanced to second on lap nine, just as Herlings had also passed Renaux and was looking like a real threat. Just as “The Bullet” lost time in trying to make a pass, so Gajser made his move, jumping thrillingly alongside Prado over the Finish Line jump at the start of lap 12 and blasting around the outside of the following corner! The Slovenian was in control, and nobody had an answer for him.
Further back, there were impressive rides throughout the top ten. Andrea Bonacorsi moved forward to claim tenth for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP behind Fernandez who took ninth on his own return from injury. Eighth went to Guillod’s teammate Kevin Horgmo, as Forato pounced on a tiring Renaux to grab sixth from him on the last lap.
Coldenhoff had got himself stuck in some trackside mud and would not finish, while Seewer took fifth to finish fourth overall in front of his happy local supporters. The final four laps saw a spell-binding charge from Herlings, as he finally got around Febvre for third, then pulled out all the stops to outpace Prado for second with a pass around a heavily rutted 180-degree right-hander!
Gajser kept his pace up to win by just under seven seconds, and the Sunday maximum, his first of the season, puts him up to an amazing 49 Grand Prix wins in his career. It doubles his lead from the start of the weekend to 18 points over Prado, and Herlings is now 24 further back from the Spaniard.
With Gajser approaching the MXGP of Turkiye with a two-year winning streak at that event, he has grabbed the momentum going into the final three rounds of the year. How will his chasers react at the Afyon Motor Sports Center? Join us or tune in to find out!
Tim Gajser: “it’s starting to be crucial, you know, like we are going towards the end of the championship, just three rounds to go. I lost some ground in Lommel and also in Arnhem. But anyway, I’m really looking forward to the tracks that we are going now. But today I felt really good, two solid starts, quick passes, let’s say, make a little gap and then control the race. I was really enjoying out there. The track was not easy, so you have to be smart and also pick the right lines. But yeah, we’re all super happy. I want to say a huge thank you to all my team, everybody around me, all the fans. Thank you very much! “
Jeffrey Herlings: “Both times once I got the second, the bird was gone. I had the speed, I had the speed all day to win, but it doesn’t bring me anything, you know! So anyway, two-two on a track, I’d say I don’t fancy so much, it’s not too bad. So, no, I mean, this is the track last year I struggled the most and now this year I felt like my bike setup was much better my riding was good I was really at good speed so yeah just couldn’t get out of start like almost always so you know it is like it is but looking forward to Turkey and China I think those tracks for the inside gates will suit me a bit better so looking forward to them”
Jorge Prado: “It was a tough day for me. I struggled with my health in race 1 and obviously race 2 was a bit better, let’s say health-wise, struggling still with the leg also that hurt in race one too. I don’t know today just everything was hard for me just fighting through myself. And if I need to battle these guys and I’m not 100% it’s hard to beat them. So it’s a pity we lost some points, but three rounds left. Let’s get back to 100% healthy and let’s get a championship.”
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 34:17.116; 2. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KT