With the news of Tim Gajser missing this coming weekends Portuguese Grand Prix and a good chance Romain Febvre (who is just 27 points off the lead of the HRC man) will probably gain the red plate in Portugal, we thought we might examine how many times the 2015 MXGP champion has held the red plate.

What is interesting is how few times in his career, the Frenchman has actually had the red plate on his bike. Of course, his 2015 season ended with the red plate attached to his Yamaha machine, and at the start of 2016, he held the red plate for the five of the opening six rounds, before Tim Gajser took control and walked away with the 2016 MXGP championship.

Despite a 10 year 450 career and 21 GP victories, the only other time that Febvre has held the red plate was in rounds 16 and 17 of that epic battle between himself, Jeffrey Herlings and Tim Gajser in 2021. Again, unfortunately for Febvre, despite entering the final round of the 2021 season with the red plate on his Kawasaki, it was Jeffrey Herlings who grabbed it and won the MXGP title.

Now Febvre has been in second place in championship points battles many times throughout his career, but outside that 2015 championship winning season, he has often been the nearly man.

In 2015, he gained the red plate in round 10 in Germany, when he went 1-2 and the red plate man for most of the early part of that season, Max Nagl crashed out in the Saturday qualification and also ended his season. Nagl scored zero points in Germany and no points again that season.

In that German Grand Prix in 2015, Febvre also moved past Antonio Cairoli, who scored just 22 points. Cairoli like Nagl ended his season in the back of an ambulance and Febvre went on to be crowned World MXGP champion.

So, outside the nine rounds in 2015, five rounds in 2016 and just two rounds in 2021, the red plate on the front of the Romain Febvre machine is something that has amazingly been missing. Just twice in the last 10 years in fact. Can he carry the red plate for the 17th time in his career after Portugal, or will something continue his run of being close, but not close enough?

Currently, the points are 305 for Gajser, 278 for Febvre, 227 for Lucas Coenen and 224 for Glenn Coldenhoff. With a 27 points deficit to Gajser and 51 points lead over Coenen, it seems nearly impossible for anyone but the Frenchman to walk away from Agueda without the red plate.

Pascal Haudiquert image