Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna factory rider Max Nagl might have walked away from the Grand Prix of Italy without a podium finish, but due to injuries to his biggest rivals Antonio Cairoli and Clement Desalle his chances of winning the 2015 MXGP championship have improved quite a lot after the Maggiora round of the series.

The likeable German rider is now 30 points ahead of Cairoli and 38 points ahead of third placed man Romain Febvre as the series hit the half way mark. It’s been consistent results that have got him there and even in the mud of Maggiora he was able to score a bunch of points. We asked him about his Italian MXGP.

Q: Max, the weekend started perfect for you didn’t it with the qualification race win?

Nagl: I felt great on Saturday and I never usually put a big effort into the qualification race on Saturday that is why I have never won a qualification race before. It went easy for me, obviously Antonio had his crash, which made it easier for me, but I felt really good on the circuit.

Q: What about Sunday?

Nagl: I was very disappointed after Sunday’s racing. I should have got better results in both races. In the first moto I almost crashed at the start. My gate dropped ok, but then bounced back up as I went. I got up to about 10th without too many problems but that wasn’t where I wanted to be. Then I got taken out by Bobryshev. I had to come into the Pit area, change my goggles and get my bike worked on. I think I was there for around 25 seconds. 15th wasn’t the result I was hoping for. I used a different gate for the second moto and got a great jump, and lead the race. I lead all moto until the last lap, when I went off line in a corner and into the mud. I’m so disappointed because I should have won the race. But I will take all of this into my home GP next weekend.

Q: Due to the heavy rain on both Saturday and Sunday the circuit could have been really terrible, but it wasn’t actually too bad was it?

Nagl: The track wasn’t too difficult on Saturday. It was raining so hard that I thought Sunday would be cancelled, but it was actually pretty dry. The problem with the circuit if you rip it, it would be too flat, but some spots probably needed to be ripped.

Q: The problems with Antonio and Clement, has that made you think differently about the championship?

Nagl: I don’t think about other riders or the points. I don’t even look at the other riders or the points, I just do the best I can and think about myself. I try and push as hard as I can, because there are so many good riders.

Q: You were behind Antonio when he crashed. Can you explain what happened there?

Nagl: It was a part of the circuit that was really tricky and he just got a kicker there. He hit it hard and made a big high-side and went down.