Gabriel SS24 KTM were in Montevarchi Italy this weekend for Round 9 of the MXGP World Championship and Round 7 of the EMX250 Championship. The weekend was met with challenging conditions with temperatures climbing into the mid-30°C throughout the weekend.

Following positive progress over the last two MXGP rounds Oriol Oliver arrived motivated to continue moving in the right direction and build on his recent improvements.

In Olivers MXGP qualifying race and he got an average start and entered the first turn in around 20th place, with a lot of water having been put on the track conditions were slippery.

Around 10 minutes into the race Oliver began to make progress through the field, making several passes to move up into 14th place. For the remainder of the moto, he didn't look completely comfortable and was unable to find the pace needed to make further passes. He ultimately finished in 14th position which provided a solid starting point heading into Sunday's races.

MXGP Race 1 saw Oliver execute a great start out of the gate and entering the first turn in 6th place. He settled into the race well and spent the opening 15 minutes running inside the top ten, holding his own and matching the pace of the factory riders around him.

With 10 minutes plus two laps remaining Oliver once again found himself battling with Jonass, however, not feeling completely comfortable on the hard-packed old-school circuit he was unable to maintain the pace needed to keep Jonass behind him, Jonass eventually made the pass with three laps to go.

During the closing stages of the race Oliver then had to fight hard to defend his position from Geerts, despite the pressure he held strong and crossed the finish line in 11th place securing another solid result.

MXGP Race 2 saw Oliver once again get off to an excellent start placing himself inside the top six and further demonstrating the consistency of his starts. However by lap three he had dropped back to 11th place as the race began to settle, Oliver struggled to fight back and regain positions from the riders who had passed him.

Despite this he never gave up and continued pushing all the way to the chequered flag. Throughout the race Oliver was able to maintain a strong pace and remained within two seconds of Fernandez for much of the moto showing good consistency, after battling until the very end Oliver crossed the finish line in 13th place.

Oriol Oliver: “Tough weekend in Italy but we gave our best to take the most points possible. Looks like on some tracks I struggle more than others and on this one like an old school track I still need to get better, I will take the positive points and strive to better in Portugal. I am still learning from the level in this class, and even if sometimes I’m not in the positions I want to be I am happy with the learning progress, let’s see what Portugal brings.”