Four Rounds – Four Men

The opening four rounds of the 2023 MXGP Motocross World Championship have produced different GP winners and presently, it looks like at least four riders are going to fight more than ever for this year’s MXGP Title, four riders who are former World champions and clearly, four men with very consistent results so far.

Series leader Jorge Prado of the Red Bull GASGAS factory Racing Team, who won round four and has held the red plate since round one in Argentina, Maxime Renaux of the Monster Energy Yamaha factory team who won round three in Switzerland and runs second in the championship, Red Bull KTM factory Racing rider Jeffrey Herlings, who won the second round of the championship in Sardinia and is third in the championship points and Romain Febvre of the Kawasaki factory team, who is yet to win a round, but holds down fourth place in the championship points and won last weekend’s RAM Qualifying race.

“Actually, this weekend,” Prado said. “I didn’t really feel good on track, I didn’t have the good feeling you know, but this morning it kind of changed. I had a good sleep, I felt better on the warm-up and first race I knew I wanted to get that start and that is what I did. I am the guy now with the race wins and of course, that gives you confidence, because there is a reason for that, you know. The level is high. I am happy I am racing and competing with these guys, also with Jeffrey, who has won multiple titles in the MXGP class and known as the best sand rider or the fastest man on the planet and I am first in the points you know (a little laugh).”

Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team’s Maxime Renaux came ever so close to winning two rounds in a row, as mentioned winning in Switzerland last week and then losing the Trentino round by just one point and you can feel his momentum is growing.

“I have to be happy with this weekend,” Renaux said. “It is a pity to lose the Grand Prix by one point, but I was inside the top-three in every session, so it was a great weekend. I’m obviously a little bit disappointed because I missed the win by one point, but this is part of the game. We cannot win every weekend. I’m just happy we’ve finally got the ball rolling and I am feeling very comfortable, so from here we will keep working and try to keep the same momentum going forward.”

As for Jeffrey Herlings, slowly he is getting back to his best speed, and we saw in race two of the Trentino round last weekend that his confidence to ride at his old level is coming back. He would of course like to be winning like in the years he completely dominated, but he knows as well as anyone, at the moment there are four guys who can win or be on the podium.

“I want to win myself,” Herlings said. “For now, it is very competitive. It is also good, because one day, this guy wins, the next day that guy wins. I am fifth, then I win. Romain won on Saturday last weekend and then didn’t make the podium. It is very close between us four. All of us can take away so many points from each other, which is good, because if you go on a weekend 1-1-1, then you make up a lot of points. When I used to fight with Tony Cairoli, we were always 1-1 or 2-2, same with Tommy Searle back in the day, always 1-1 and 2-2, so getting a gap in the points was difficult or catching the points leader was also difficult. Now, if I go 1-1-1 and the other guy goes 5-5-5, I can make up 25 points or something like that.”

And finally, Romain Febvre who is starting to show the same form that took him to a World Title in 2015 and Vice Motocross World Champion in 2021. While he missed to podium due to a crash in race one, he continues to look dangerous and capable of winning a Grand Prix sooner rather than later.

"It was a very tough Sunday with a crash at the start of the first race. I can’t blame myself as another rider crashed on me and I couldn’t do anything about it; I was under several bikes and started the race dead last. With forty riders on the track, it’s a big challenge to pass them, especially as there were less lines than on Saturday after they flattened the track. It wasn't easy to pass, but that’s racing; I didn’t get a single clear, fast lap in the traffic. My second start was good, but I couldn't find my rhythm at first and made a few mistakes; when I found my lines, I had the same speed as the riders in front of me but, as I wasn’t faster, I couldn’t join them."

So, in a little under two weeks, these four men will head to Portugal and try to slow down the progress of each other and put more points on the board than their main rivals. Whatever happens in Agueda, be sure that these four are on the podium, or close to it.