Agueda, Portugal is the host for this fourth round of the 2022 Motocross World Championship, where Team HRC’s Tim Gajser will look to make it four wins in a row as he tries to extend his lead at the top of MXGP class.

The scenic hard-pack track, an hour south of Porto hasn’t hosted a round since 2019 where Gajser went one-one, starting off his seven-race win streak on his way to what was his third world title. Now, a few years later, the #243 is hoping that Agueda is kind to him again as he hopes to keep his new win-streak alive and increase his points gap from the 17 points it currently stands at.

Team mate Mitch Evans will also head to Portugal with confidence, knowing that in 2019, he stood on the podium in the MX2 class, after he produced his best results of that year with four-three moto finishes for third place overall. Combine this with his best results of the year last time out in Patagonia-Argentina and things are definitely on the rise for the young Australian.

With the weather looking good this weekend, the riders should be able to enjoy riding the distinctive orange dirt once again across the two days. First up will be free practice (11:20), followed by timed practice (14:00) which will give the gate-picks for the qualifying race that afternoon (17:00). The result of that race will then determine the gate-picks for the two points-scoring motos on Sunday afternoon (14:15 & 17:10).

Tim Gajser: I’ve been feeling really good this season, having a lot of fun in the races and I think that is showing in the results. I’ve won every round and either finished first or second in every race, so I am showing my speed and my consistency. Agueda is another track that I like and I’ve won here before, so hopefully I can continue this run and try to get my first one-one of the season as well. Everyone in the team is working really hard and it is great to repay that work with these wins!

Mitch Evans: Argentina was another step-up for me, showing that I have the speed to battle with the guys at the front, so this past week I’ve tried to continue that progression and just work on extending that speed further and further into the moto. I saw a really cool photo of us Honda riders sweeping round the first turn together, with Tim getting the holeshot and me not far behind and that’s the sort of thing I want to do more and more, get up there and show I deserve to be at the front and start getting my own holeshots. These first few rounds have all been at tracks I like and Agueda is another one I’ve had good results at in the past, so it’s good to be heading there in a confident mood.

Marcus Pereira de Freitas - HRC General Manager – MXGP: It was a long, but a successful trip down to Argentina, so now everyone needed a couple of days to recover from that travel. Now though, we are fully focused on Portugal and keeping this feeling going. Tim getting a holeshot was a big boost for the team and for Honda, as it shows how powerful the Honda CRF450R is, and now we have one award, we want to get as many as possible. Both riders are happy with the season and want to put in two more solid races this weekend.

Bavo Swijgers image