Tim Gajser has finally repaid the faith of his new Yamaha team, taking a stunning maiden race win for the Iwata marque at Arco di Trento — a circuit Slovenian fans have long treated as Gajser's second home.
The five-time world champion had been managing a rib injury sustained at the Riola round and admitted that the very idea of a race win looked unthinkable when he arrived in Italy.
"I mean, like coming into this weekend I was like, yeah, in a lot of pain, you know? Like definitely we were not thinking about any podium, you know? Race wins, you know? It was just incredible and I give it my all, you know? Both motos," Gajser said.
Race one confirmed Gajser had the speed to run at the sharp end, but the second moto turned into something far bigger. Working on his starts and making late suspension adjustments between races, the Slovenian found himself shadowing Lucas Coenen before the Belgian cracked.
"Then I was behind Lucas and I was just putting up pressure on him all the time for quite many laps and then he made a mistake on his own and I was in the lead," Gajser said. "I was like, fuck, it's been a long time, you know? I was leading."
With partisan Italian-Slovenian fans roaring every time he flashed past the pit straight, Gajser pushed through the rib pain to hold the lead to the flag.
"When I passed the first time when I was in the lead, the fans were going crazy, you know? And then I could hear them every lap and they were kind of like keeping me up," he said. "I was starting to feel the pain, but I said like, shit, I don't want to lose the lead with couple of laps to go. So I pushed until the end, go even over myself a little bit with the pain, but it was worth it."
The victory was also a tangible return on the bike development work Yamaha and Gajser have been ploughing through since his switch from Honda. The team has clearly invested in tailoring the YZ450FM chassis to his style, and Gajser said the weekend's gains came down to fine detail rather than wholesale change.
"I'm not a lot, just a little bit suspension, you know? Couple of clickers," he explained. "But it makes difference, you know? Especially on the track like how rough and sketchy it was today. You need a bike to be stable, but at the same time to work — that is not too rigid."
Gajser was also quick to credit his starts. The Slovenian has historically been vulnerable off the gate and he pointed out that clean launches transformed his options across both motos.
"When you had a good start, I feel like the race is completely different," he said. "You can ride a pace with the guys in front, you can be creative. It's definitely way, way, way more — it's never easy, but it is easier, you know? If you start in front, if you start like 12 to 15, it's not easy to come through the pack because so many good riders."
Thanking the travelling Slovenian support, the home factory Yamaha crew and the Italian fans, Gajser insisted the hard work of the winter switch was now paying off.
"Huge thank you to all the team. I feel like the hard work is paying off because we really work a lot, you know? With the testing, trying to develop the things and myself training super hard. So, yeah, everything is coming together. Hopefully we can have a good rest of the season."
With a four-week break now in the MXGP calendar, Gajser heads into France with a genuine result to build on and the confidence that, even at less than 100 per cent physically, the Yamaha project is trending in the right direction.
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