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New Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP recruit Tim Gajser admitted that round one of the MXGP World Championship ‘probably wasn’t the smoothest weekend’ after he finished fourth overall with a 6-3 scorecard at Argentina’s season-opener.

The five-time world champion had a spectacular incident during Saturday’s qualification race, colliding on a down ramp with a lapped rider and crashing out of P7. He would recover to 10th position, scoring the final world championship point of the encounter.

Sunday’s two-moto format saw the Slovenian power to 6-3 results at the Bariloche circuit for fourth overall, outlining that both he and the team continued to learn throughout the Argentine weekend.

“We came here to learn, and while it probably wasn’t the smoothest weekend, we made the most of the circumstances,” said Gajser. “There are definitely positives to take, especially from the second moto, and I felt like we improved in every session, which is encouraging. Of course, the goal is to be fighting at the front, but I feel like that will come with time.

“The track was quite tricky with not a lot of grip, so that made things a bit challenging, but overall, we learned a lot. Now we have two weeks before Spain, so we’ll keep working hard and come back even better prepared.”

Gajser is ranked fifth in the premier class standings on 36 points, while his replacement at the Honda HRC Petronas program – Jeffrey Herlings – delivered a 1-1 performance at round one. The MXGP of Andalucia in Spain is set for the second round on March 21-22.