Defending World MXGP champion Jorge Prado is showing what a great champion does when under pressure and the Red Bull GasGas factory rider put together a very solid 3-1 performance and pulled four points away from the lead of red plate man, Tim Gajser. It was also his 47th GP victory in his career and ninth in 2024.

With huge pressure for the big three in Turkey, it was Prado who came out smelling like roses and showing that despite some misfortunes with his riding gear and goggles, he is still the man coming out of Turkey.

Now, with two rounds remaining, the Spaniard knows he needs to continue to win and with a 14 point deficit to the HRC man, all he can do is win every single race and hope that Gajser falters.

It is a tall order, but you can tell that Prado is up for the challenge and the chance to win his fourth World motocross championship is still very much there. He spoke to the World media and this is what he told us.

Second on Saturday, first race was good, but second race you rode so well

Prado: It was overall it was a pretty good weekend. It could have been even better, but I am happy to get another victory, the ninth one this year, so happy with my riding. Second one, was good, I was happy with that win, just a pity in that first moto when the lens of my goggles came off and I was riding pretty much for 10 minutes, without goggles, so that was a big shame. I couldn’t move forward, even though I was trying a lot to pass Renaux, he was very hard to pass. I tried for the whole moto to pass him, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I was super, super mad, not about him, about the goggles. For the last 10 minutes, I couldn’t get close enough and every time I got close, I got so many stones in my eye. It was a pity, but I managed to do the best I could. Happy with the win and getting closer in the championship too. Two rounds left, so it is up to me to get it done. Really looking forward to the last two rounds.

Second race, good speed.

In the first laps I did some mistakes around the track and was not really pumped about the riding. I was quite smooth, but just in a few places, I made small mistakes and then just in a few places I got better lines and that helped to find my flow. I was riding very smooth, so I was happy to get it done. I knew Jeffrey was also pushing Tim from behind so, yes, I just needed to stay calm, and we got it home.

The track, it was different from Saturday to Sunday.

I think it was better on Sunday, they put more water for the warm-up and they ripped deeper and I think it is cooler to ride on a track with ruts and different options. Definitely today was more fun, at least I enjoyed more the riding. Saturday was a little bit too hard in places, there was pretty much no ruts anywhere, just flat corners and pretty much speedway.

JP/GasGas images