After a challenging start to the season, the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP team showed real signs of progress at the latest round. A standout qualifying race win for Jago Geerts was a clear highlight, with the Belgian riding like his old self — smooth, controlled, and reminiscent of his MX2 days. We caught up with team owner Hans Corvers to get his thoughts on the weekend, including Calvin Vlaanderen’s best moto of the year, Maxime Renaux’s impressive ride despite injury, and the continued progress in bike setup. Corvers also reflects on his time in MX2, his transition to MXGP, and what the future holds after nearly three decades with Yamaha.
GateDrop: Hans, I would say overall probably a positive weekend. Obviously, the qualifying race win for Jago, that was probably top of the whole lot. What was it like seeing him win again? It was the way he’d done it more than anything… He looked completely in control, very smooth. It was like MX2 Jago!
Corvers: Yeah, he’s searching already the whole season for the good setup. As we know he’s coming from a really tough injury. Finally, the last two weeks he feels much better on the bike. Yesterday he showed us that he didn’t win for nothing 24 GP’s in the MX2 World Championship. It took a long time, especially for him. It was really nice that he could win the heat. Also, Maxime was nice in third and Calvin from tenth to fifth. So, 1, 3 and 5, that was a really good Saturday. Today was a little bit different. Maxime did really well in the first race, taking the second place. Jago came together with Fernandez I hear from him. He had a good start because he was third or fourth. But then he fell in the mud, and it was difficult. Calvin was decent, eighth place.
In the second race, Maxime had a good start and Jago crashed in the first lap. Calvin was good, I think second or third. He kept on going in second place until Romain passed him. Overall it was not a bad day. We had a lot of rain, but we see a little bit of sunshine. We are looking forward to France.
GateDrop: Calvin had the best moto he has had all season. I think he probably needed that for the confidence. It was nice to see him ride like his usual self again. He hasn’t been at his best so far this year…
Corvers: What we see from Calvin is that he puts really good lap times on the board. So, the speed is there. From my side it is a tough race in the MXGP, the start is so important. Calvin is sometimes a little bit too easy. He let it go too easy. When he should have the balls, he was already more times in the top three from the start. But today in the second race he had the place and he did well. It was nice that he showed this. We all saw that he fought a long time for the second place. I think that in the next races Calvin will be there again where he belongs in the top five. We hope we can put the puzzle together and continue like yesterday.
GateDrop: Just on Maxime, he wasn’t even supposed to race here. There was a press release and he was out for the next two GP’s. What is he able to do during the week? Is he even riding during the week? How far off is he to being 100%? So for him to finish second in the first moto is very impressive…
Corvers: Max is a tough guy. A really strong, hard guy. Normally he couldn’t race last week and this weekend but he managed himself to do it. So, he got green light from the doctors but he is not fit, he is not fit enough. He is a really tough person. So, in the second moto, he was in third place. He wanted to pass Seewer on the inside so he made a small crash otherwise for sure in the second race he will be in the top three also. It’s been a few weeks already without riding on the bike. He was riding really little this week. I think the next two weeks will be important to heal his body. Because he looks forward to France of course.
GateDrop: Jago and Calvin, at the start of the season it was a bit of a struggle. Was it down to the new frame? Or was there more to it than that? And have you made many changes to get them comfortable? Because the last few weeks has been more positive…
Corvers: It was all a bit together I think. They did really good tests last year in October and they were really happy with the setup. But then they are coming to the races and the races is different than training. Then they were looking for different things but they have been found now. We are looking forward to being on the box again.
GateDrop: This is your second year I think running the MXGP team for Yamaha. Do you enjoy it? Do you miss MX2 a little bit? What are your feelings on running MXGP? Or maybe you want to run them both in the future? (laughs) Who knows?
Corvers: MX2 was really nice. For myself I was not really finished over there but then Yamaha came with a request to do MXGP. We sat together about that and this is my twenty-ninth season already on Yamaha. It’s already a long time and I really wanted that I should do the MXGP class so I said, okay we will go and do that. Maxime also would have liked to have been with us again so it was okay. It’s a little bit different. It’s different than MX2 but on the end it’s the same. It’s organization, it’s racing and now we don’t give up. We will go for it until we have achieved our goal.
GateDrop: So, twenty-nine years with Yamaha. What’s the future hold? You seem like a very passionate man so you’ll probably be in the paddock for a lot of years to come yet. Although I have to say it’s probably not the cheapest sport in the world…
Corvers: Yeah but we’re looking forward. So, I think at the minimum we’re going to continue three years.
GateDrop: The next three years has been signed with Yamaha?
Corvers: Yeah, with Yamaha of course so it looks good.
