Jorge Casales secures fifth place overall in X-Trial Budapest

Michelle Liew

January 21, 2020

Jorge Casales returns to the 2020 X-Trials with a fifth-place finish.

Jorge Casales | Photo credits: GasGas Factory Racing

GasGas Factory Racing rider Jorge Casales has made his return to the 2020 FIM X-Trial World Championship and secured fifth place at Budapest. The third round of the series, the X-Trial Budapest, was held within the city’s Sport Arena. Even though Casales started off with an unfavourable position, he managed to take a leap from that and secure a positive finish.

After his absence in the second round held in Rennes, France, Casales showed impressive improvement this time. He had a difficult start against Jeroni Fajardo and Miquel Gelabert. He dropped one mark in the first section but bounced back to pick up five in the second and third sections. Casales completed the heat with a total of 13 marks. He trailed two points behind winner Fajardo.

Photo credits: GasGas Factory Racing

During the second round, he scored fives in each of the five sections and was unable to proceed into the runners-up final thus ended his run at fifth place overall.

Jorge Casales and the rest of the GasGas Factory Team will be heading to Spain for the X-Trial Barcelona in the Pala San Jordi on February 2.

Jorge Casales (GasGas Factory Racing Team)- As It Happened

Photo credits: GasGas Factory Racing

“It has turned out to be a tough night. I felt good arriving in Budapest after some good training during the week. The first heat went well, but I made a few mistakes. That made me a little unsure about making the semi-final. Thankfully, I did make it into the semi-final and the sections were really difficult. Also being the first rider to enter each section made things even harder. I had no references, but I gave it everything I had. I scored a lot of fives. But well, overall I am really satisfied. I can see some very positive results ahead if I can remove some small errors from my riding. We’ll continue working hard and look ahead to the next round in Barcelona,” says Casales as quoted from GasGas Factory Racing.