Slaw
The halfway stage of the season has been reached at the Crossdromo Internaçional de Águeda, as the MXGP of Portugal hosted a stunning tenth round of the 2026 FIM World Motocross Championships, under slightly cooler conditions than yesterday, which allowed the packed grandstands and hillsides of fans to put out even more energy as the atmosphere built around the famous orange dirt of the Portuguese venue!
In an instantly classic duel of the titans, Honda HRC Petronas’ Jeffrey Herlings took a record sixth overall GP victory at Águeda, turning the tables on his young rival Lucas Coenen, who took second for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, finishing on the same points for the day after the pair shared the top two positions in each race. Romain Febvre took his fourth straight podium finish at this venue, clinching third overall with two third places for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP.
In MX2, Guillem Farres gained redemption from the series’ previous visit to the Iberian Peninsula, and completed a perfect weekend of three race victories for himself and the Triumph Racing Factory Team. He was followed by Janis Reisulis, who climbed his first career Grand Prix podium with second overall for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2. Championship leader Sacha Coenen bounced back from a big first race crash to take third overall for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, although his Championship lead took a major cut thanks to Farres’ 1-1-1 scoreline.
Jeffrey Herlings: “I felt like me and Lucas were roughly the same speed all weekend. In race one I lost a lot of time with my teammate Ruben, I spent a longtime trying to pass him and Lucas went ahead. In race two I was straight into second after one lap, and I felt I was a bit faster at some points, but it was very difficult to find a line to pass. I found one spot where I could do it, and I made sure to stop him from going around me. I pushed a few laps, made a nice little gap and managed to win. GP number 117, race win 221, the stats keep getting impressive, but it’s been a nice weekend and I look forward to South Africa.”
Lucas Coenen: “The key is to be smart. I think I did the best weekend I could to win the overall. In race one I was running pretty good and felt ready. In race two I was just trying to control it, I knew Jeffrey wanted to win and he needed to, so I felt like I was being smart and not really pushing. At one moment I made a mistake and didn’t jump the triple; I slowed down but Jeffrey went really close and I had to stop otherwise I was going down. Second overall, I gotta keep pushing and be consistent. I’m young, so I can learn from the best, and that’s the main thing.”
Romain Febvre: “I felt pretty good straight away from Saturday. It was good to have a nice track with a lot of grip and nice jumps, for two years in a row it was a muddy one, so I was glad to have a good weekend like this. The two guys at the front were faster in almost every session, so it’s hard, but I’m there and I try to close the gap every time. In race two my start was not good and I was quite far back, but I saw Gajser ahead and thought I need to make passes quick or I won’t catch him. Two times third, finally two good races. My riding was better and I’m really happy.”
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 35:36.420; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:06.203; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:16.060; 4. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), +0:20.583; 5. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:38.907; 6. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), +0:53.326; 7. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +1:08.555; 8. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Ducati), +1:10.501; 9. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +1:16.188; 10. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Honda), +1:16.552;
MXGP Overall – Top 10 Classification: . Jeffrey Herlings (NED, HON), 47 points; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 47 p.; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 40 p.; 4. Tim Gajser (SLO, YAM), 36 p.; 5. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 32 p.; 6. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KAW), 30 p.; 7. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 27 p.; 8. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 26 p.; 9. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, DUC), 24 p.; 10. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 20 p.
Guillem Farres: “I feel great, it’s really nice to get a perfect weekend, and this is my first ever perfect weekend. This GP is also special because it’s close to Spain, so I had my family here and a bunch of friends showed up as a surprise. I haven’t changed a thing the whole weekend, which gives me a lot of extra confidence when riding. We did a lot of work this winter and for some reason on hard pack tracks I haven’t touched a single clicker all year. The most important thing is not winning every weekend, it’s minimizing the bad days. On the good days everything is easier; on the bad days is when the real champion shows up.”
Janis Reisulis: “I was feeling very calm this weekend. The last two races were not how I really wanted, so I went in with nothing to lose and just went for it. Two quite good starts helped me and I was feeling really good on the track, nice flow and I was just keeping it in control. In EMX you can sometimes relax at the end of a race, but in MX2 the intensity at the end is sometimes even higher than at the beginning, and that’s what I’ve been losing in the early part of the season. This weekend gave me a lot of experience keeping up at the front in the last laps. I’m slowly getting into this class.”
Sacha Coenen: “I started not too bad in race one, was in third, but then I made a mistake and went down, and came back from last to sixth which was quite difficult because the track was wet and slippery, you couldn’t make a mistake because it was really fast for everyone. In race two I had a not too bad start, stayed in third for quite a long time, made a move into second place and tried to come back, but Guillem passed me so I couldn’t catch him. Third overall was not really bad for a bad weekend, let’s say. I just had some issues dealing with the front at times, but it is what it is.”
MX2 Overall – Top 10 Classification: 1. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 50 points; 2. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 40 p.; 3. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 37 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 36 p.; 5. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 35 p.; 6. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 34 p.; 7. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), 26 p.; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 25 p.; 9. Kay Karssemakers (NED, KAW), 21 p.; 10. Jens Walvoort (NED, KTM), 21 p.
MX2 – World Championship Classification: . Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 477 points; 2. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 445 p.; 3. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 415 p.; 4. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 413 p.; 5. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 397 p.; 6. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 355 p.; 7. Mathis Valin (FRA, KAW), 352 p.; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 273 p.; 9. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 256 p.; 10. Kay Karssemakers (NED, KAW), 205 p.
