Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Focuses on Positives after Challenging Season Opener

12-03-2023

Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Focuses on Positives after Challenging Season Opener

The Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP team showed good speed at the opening round of the FIM Motocross World Championship in Villa La Angostura, Argentina, despite the overall result not reflecting the team’s true potential. Maxime Renaux leaves Argentina fifth in the MXGP Championship Standings, while Glenn Coldenhoff and Jeremy Seewer are ninth and 10th, respectively.

With its dark and grainy volcanic soil, the Patagonia Race Track proved tricky to navigate. The hidden square-edged bumps and hard-to-read surface caught out many of the world’s best riders.

Renaux opened his 2023 MXGP campaign with consistently fast lap times and a solid display of awe-inspiring fighting spirit as he bounced back from a spectacular crash to finish third in Race One.

At the same time, Coldenhoff started and finished seventh, while Seewer’s hopes of a good result were spoiled by an unavoidable crash with two other riders on the opening lap that caused some damage to his front brake disc. The Swiss rider pulled into pit-lane hoping it could be repaired, but it was to no avail. Left with no option but to withdraw or continue, he impressively raced with a buckled disc from last position to 17th.

In the second and final race of the day, Coldenhoff powered his YZ450FM to an impressive holeshot but felt uncomfortable on the tricky circuit and was quickly shuffled back to eighth. Renaux moved up into fourth before suffering another heavy knock, which proved hard to recover from. Seewer, however, was back! The ‘91’ showed an incredible return to form as he put in a mind-blowing ride from outside of the top ten to a third-place finish.

Renaux braved the remainder of the race to finish ninth, while Coldenhoff was fortunate to finish 14th after a gnarly crash on lap-13.

After a day of mixed emotions, Renaux and Seewer finished the Grand Prix of Patagonia-Argentina sixth and seventh in the classification, while Coldenhoff rounded out the top 10.

But, with the addition of the points scored in the Qualifying Race yesterday, Renaux will head to Round Two of the FIM Motocross World Championship fifth in the Championship Standings. At the same time, Coldenhoff and Seewer will arrive ninth and 10th, respectively.

The next round will take place in Riola-Sardo, Sardinia, on the 25 – 26 March.

Click here for full results from the MXGP of Patagonia-Argentina.

Maxime Renaux

5th MXGP Championship Standings, 40-points

“This weekend didn’t go exactly to plan, but looking at the positives, the speed is there, and we have something to build on. I like this track, but it can be quite tricky at times. I had a couple of big crashes. In the first race I still managed to fight back to third, but in the second race, the impact was a little bit bigger, and I only finished ninth. We obviously want more, so I am already looking forward to getting back behind the gate in Riola.”

Glenn Coldenhoff

9th MXGP Championship Standings, 25-points

“This weekend started off good. Saturday I was running a good pace with good lap times, also in the Qualifying Race even though I was perhaps a little bit too stiff. The first moto was okay, I was behind Pauls Jonass all of the race, but didn’t find that little bit extra to make a pass, but the speed was okay. In the second moto, I took the holeshot, but was passed pretty much straight away. At the halfway point, I started finding my rhythm again, but then had a big crash. I had a headache from that but finished 14th. It definitely wasn’t the way I wanted to start the season, but we will build from here.

Jeremy Seewer

10th MXGP Championship Standings, 24-points

“The frustrating thing to start about this weekend is, none of what happened in the Qualifying Race and in Race One today was in my hands. This is a tough pill to swallow. You only need to look at the second moto to see where I belong. I didn’t do anything special to finish inside the top-three, I just rode my race. I think if the Qualifying Race ended differently, I would have been able to get better starts and potentially fight for the win. Anyway, the result is not the end of the world, there are still a lot of points on the table, so it’s fine.”