It doesn’t take a genius to understand that Jorge Prado is a special rider. When the defending MXGP champion picked up his 10th GP victory of the season in China and the 48th in his career, he did so with huge pressure.

Winning in China wasn’t just any GP win, it was one that came in conditions that could easily have seen others fail, but the 23-year-old, still not in his prime showed how much he has improved this season and how desperate he is the show the World, he is THE MAN!!!!

Sure, he started the season with those four GP wins in Argentina, Spain, Sardinia and Spain, but a lot of that success was coming off his busy off-season of AMA supercross. It was clear at the time he was on another level, compared to the slow starting Tim Gajser and Jeffrey Herlings, but what Prado showed us in 2024, is that he can come back from severe challenges. Even when it seems he could fail in his defence, that he turned it around and came out on top.

When Gajser and Herlings started putting together win after win, and Gajser event taking the red plate in that fateful Maggiora GP, it seemed like Prado was maybe fading a little and that busy off-season was starting to take its toll on the Spaniard. At that point, it was easy to see Gajser as the next champion, but Prado wasn’t having any of it, he wasn’t about to allow anyone to take the MXGP championship he had worked so hard to earn in 2023.

We have said it before, but that 2023 title victory has some question marks as Gajser missed most of the season due to injury and Herlings missed a lot of the season due to injury, so the fact Prado won, did have questions.

What would happen if these two five-time World champions were fit all season, could the GasGas man still be the best? Well, in China, and in another nine rounds this year, Prado has shown, that he is the fastest man in Europe and maybe the fastest man in the World.

He has beaten the two best riders from the last decade, two men who have most of the World titles to their name since 2015. Prado really showed this weekend, that he isn't just the best this year, or last year, he might have shown us, he is the best of his generation.

There can be no doubt now, that Prado is the best and if he does take that fourth World title in Spain in two weeks’ time, and maybe picked up his 49th GP win, he climbs another step in the history books of Grand Prix motocross.

For GP wins in his career, he is only behind six men, Jeffrey Herlings (107), Stefan Everts (101), Antonio Cairoli (94), Joel Smets (57), Joel Robert (50) and Tim Gajser (49) in all time GP wins, and for World motocross titles, only behind 12 men, Stefan Everts (10), Cairoli (9), Robert (6), Herlings (5), Gajser (5), Roger De Coster (5), Georges Jobe (5), Eric Geboers (5), Joel Smets (5), Heikki Mikkola (4), Harry Everts (4) and Torsten Hallman (4), who stand in front of him.

Another World title in Spain in two weeks and he goes to four World titles, but he will pass Mikkola, Everts and Hallman in the all-time list, as he has more GP wins than those three legends. Already in amongst the all-time greats, he will climb even further up the list.

For many of us, it is a pity he will leave Grand Prix motocross at the end of this season, as he could so easily continue to climb the list of all-time greats, and at just 23 years of age, nothing is saying he cannot become the greatest of all time, but, he heads to USA in October and will take on another challenge.

His legacy in the sport, in the folk-law of Grand Prix motocross, is secure. Greatness has already been reached, and that World title in two weeks’ time, will make us remember him long after he retires. Jorge Prado has been too consistent and made hardly any errors of late, that it seems nearly impossible for him to lose the 2024 MXGP title. I think most of us already have the crown on his head.

Still, probably a long way from his peak, he has so much more to give and one thing is for sure, Jett Lawrence will have a new challenge himself, because this special Spaniard isn’t going to America to just be part of the competition, he is going there to be just another European statistic, he is going there to add to his championships and impressive retirement fund.

We will miss him, but we will follow his progress closely and hope that one day he returns to us and can add another World title or two and also reach that magnificent number of 50 GP wins. He deserves to be a top five all-time champion, and that extra World title and 50th GP win would do that.