Maxime Renaux: Title Rounds

Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing rider Maxime Renaux is heading towards what is starting to look like his first World Motocross Championship. The former European 125 champion has battled through some tough times in this very demanding sport and with massive points lead in the MX2 World Championship goes into the final seven rounds with a lot of confidence and belief.

“I am really happy about my season,” Renaux said. “I’m being pretty consistent now and always work my way to the front if I don’t start good or something. Except for the first race in Orlyonok where I had a little bit of trouble with some sickness that I had to fight my way through, it has all gone well. I’ve only missed out on the podium two times. I’m really happy about it. Now we try to make some improvements over the past two weeks with my starts, so I’m getting better at that and looking to improve on this very topic this weekend.”

Those difficult times, when he was so badly injured that he missed a couple of seasons racing for a title have made him more determined and given him a stronger character. Now going into the final month of the championship battle he is ready for anything.

“I’ve been through some tough years. It all started in 2015. Actually, I was initially riding the European 125 Championship and then in the Junior World Championship I won the 125cc title in 2015. That (2015) season was one of the best years that I had as a young guy and after that I had some big injuries in 2016 and 2017. In 2017 I had big pause in my career because I had to stop for a full year because I had a crash with a rider that jumped on me, and I suffered some stretched nerves, and my left arm was completely paralysed, and I couldn’t move it and I couldn’t react on anything with it. It was a tough year and I really had to fight to make it back. Then 2018 was just a struggle in trying to get back to racing.

“After a year of not racing, I had to go back and find that momentum that I had with racing. It was a tough year, and it was also tough with my arm because it still wasn’t 100-percent. In 2019, my first full season, I was seventh in the World Championship. In 2020 I was third in the World Championship. Now it is 2021 and I am fighting for the World Championship. Yeah, it has been like you said, it has been consistent improvement and I am really looking to keep on going and seeing the bigger picture and improving every year.”

Obviously looking forward to his home Grand Prix this weekend, Renaux will try and add to his victory last weekend in Germany and extend those points lead even more, taking off the pressure as we ended the final few rounds of the title race.