Qualifying Race: 11th
Warm-up: 6th fastest lap
Race 1: 14th
Race 2: 17th
Overall: 15th
Round 13 of the MXGP World Championship was a weekend where the results didn’t reflect my true potential. I felt comfortable on the bike and showed good speed throughout the weekend, but incidents early in both races on Sunday prevented me from converting that pace into strong results.
The weekend started positively, and I felt comfortable on the bike from Saturday morning. I got a poor start in the qualifying race and was around 20th, but quickly worked my way through the field. I eventually finished 11th, just outside the top ten. I was happy with my riding, although the result could have been even better with a stronger start.
Before Sunday’s races, I changed my starting position behind the gate, and that worked well. Everything felt really good during warm-up, where I set the sixth-fastest lap time. That gave me plenty of confidence heading into the races.
In Race 1, I made a great start and was running in fifth position on the opening lap. Unfortunately, early on the second lap, I collided with another rider and went down. It took some time to get going again, and I rejoined around 20th position. I managed to fight my way back to 14th, but after such a strong start, it was disappointing to lose the opportunity for a good result.
I made another strong start in Race 2 and came through the first corner around seventh or eighth. Going into the next corner, a rider crashed on the inside of me and forced me into the fence. I was stuck there for a long time and didn’t get going again until I was already around 20 seconds behind the rest of the field.
I also had to stop and try to straighten the handlebars, but they remained twisted for the rest of the race. From that point, I treated the race as a training session, focusing on maintaining consistent lap times and making it to the finish. I eventually worked my way back to 17th position.
It was a frustrating weekend because my speed, feeling on the bike and starts all showed that I had the potential to fight for much better results. Unfortunately, things went against me in both races this time.
Now it’s time to recharge the batteries quickly. Round 14 in Lommel is already coming up next weekend—one of the most physically demanding races of the season in the deep Belgian sand.
A big thank you to everyone who supports me:
Team SR Officiel
100 Percent Moto
Alpinestars MX
Fairing Sports
NMF Sport
Lunner Motorsport
Asfalt AS
Brede Sandsbråten AS
Gotakst AS
Tom Sletsjø
Gym2000 Treningssenter
Porsgrunn Pukkservice AS
Rema 1000 Ã…mot
isoEnergi AS
Kristoffersen AS
Lier Planteland AS
Interoptik Weggersen