Australia’s Mitch Evans can draw many positives from the MXGP of Trentino, leading a majority of Saturday’s qualifying race to demonstrate that he has the speed to battle with the best.

Evans ultimately finished the qualifying heat in third before notching a 10-9 scorecard for the round, seeing him ninth overall – his second top 10 of the season.

The Team HRC rider ran fifth for a great part of Sunday’s first race at Pietramurata, before dropping back in the closing stages. Race two saw Evans work his way forwards from P13.

“While perhaps the end results weren’t as good as I hoped, I am still very positive about how things went this weekend, Evans explained. I showed in the qualification race, and in moto one today that I have the speed to run with the guys up the front so now I have to put myself in the position to do that regularly.

“I also have to extend that speed for the full 35 minutes, but I don’t think I’m too far away from that and I’m excited to get to Latvia after another week of work. Thanks to the team for all their help and for helping me make these steps every race.”

It was a promising round for the number 43, who continues to build back race fitness after missing the entirety of the 2021 season due to a troublesome wrist injury.

The next outing for Evans comes at round six of the 2022 MXGP World Championship in Latvia, to be contested on 24 April.