In front of a record crowd of more than 40,000 fans that packed around the Stedelijk Motocrossterrain Lommel circuit, the MXGP elite battled with one of the most physically demanding tracks on the planet.
They put on a fantastic display of racing for the sun-baked 14th round of the FIM Motocross World Championships, the MXGP of Flanders in Belgium.
It was a case of the expected favourites delivering what was expected, and in MXGP that meant the championship leader, Jeffrey Herlings, crushing all competition on his way to completing a second perfect weekend in a row for Honda HRC Petronas, tightening his grip on the series into a 104-point lead with five rounds to go.
He also brought his record win tally up to an unbelievable 120 GP wins in the process.
Second place overall went to Kay de Wolf, the fellow Dutchman having recently signed a contract extension for another three years with Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing.
Slovenian Tim Gajser enjoyed good starts and toughed it out to take third overall for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP.
In the MX2 class, despite his red-plate-holding team-mate being on a four-GP winning streak coming in, the favourite was undoubtably Triumph Racing Factory Team rider Camden McLellan, and the South African well and truly delivered to score his first ever 1-1-1 weekend for his second career GP win.
Championship leader Guillem Farres fought hard to make it the third 1-2 of the year for the Triumph Racing Factory Team, while defending World Champion Simon Längenfelder put in a solid day in the sand to take third overall for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing.
Every single rider out there today deserves immense congratulations for even taking on the challenge in the hot summer sun and making it through the day.
True to form, Herlings was once again top of the timesheets in morning warm-up, a clear 3.6 seconds ahead of Gajser and Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s #1 plate holder Romain Febvre.
Andrea Bonacorsi showed some promise on his return to action for Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team, with fourth in the session ahead of the JK Racing Yamaha of Isak Gifting.
Former red plate holder and Belgian hope Lucas Coenen had already withdrawn from the racing after Saturday’s free practice, and the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing ace will work on his health issues in the first weekend off since his crash in the USA, in an aim to be in action for the next round in Sweden.
Meanwhile, running with the red plate this weekend, for the first time since the Saturday of the MXGP of Andalucia in March, Herlings blazed towards his fifth holeshot of the season to put all of his competitors at a disadvantage from the very start.
Andrea Adamo was initially second for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, although he was instantly passed by Gajser into the third corner, and Kay de Wolf worked around the outside of the Italian to claim third before Pit Lane towards the end of the first full lap.
The second Honda HRC Petronas machine of Tom Vialle also fired past Adamo on the second lap, and Febvre was next along.
Behind them was Vialle’s team-mate Ruben Fernandez, the second Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP of Maxime Renaux, Gifting, and the KTM Kosak of Roan van de Moosdijk.
With his typical lurid sand style, De Wolf skipped towards the rear wheel of Gajser, and a mistake by the Slovenian on lap three gave the Dutchman the chance to draw close, and launch into second place on the wall jump by pit lane.
Meanwhile, Febvre took until lap seven to make a move stick on Adamo for fifth, and Bonacorsi momentarily hit the top 10 before a small mistake dropped him down the order.
Gifting had passed Renaux for eighth on lap two, and former Lommel winner (and resident) Ben Watson would also dance past the Frenchman at half distance to take a brilliant ninth for Dirt Store Triumph Racing.
Kevin Horgmo also moved into the top 10 for Team Honda Motoblouz SR Motul.
Febvre took until lap 11 to get past Vialle for fourth, and although he got right up to the rear wheel of Gajser, he could not make that final pass to get into the top three.
Vialle took fifth as Adamo stayed ahead of Fernandez for sixth, helping him in his duel with the Spaniard for fifth in the series. Gifting took eighth, his best result since his return to action in the UK, ahead of Watson and Horgmo.
Herlings left the rest scratching their head with a winning margin of over 45 seconds, leaving everybody wishing him a poor start for race two.
Those wishes were not granted, however, as he sand-surfed his way around the outside of Vialle to lead into turn two, even though the Frenchman claimed his seventh holeshot of the season to equal Lucas Coenen at the top of that table.
De Wolf was further back even than in race one, but Gajser and Febvre were closer and the pair nearly came to grief as they both tried to make a move on Vialle.
Febvre it was who got past his countryman in the outcome of that tangle, then Gajser launched the factory Yamaha off the wall jump to take third.
De Wolf had recovered well to get to fifth by the end of the first full lap, ahead of Fernandez, Van de Moosdijk, Gifting, Renaux, and the Becker Racing KTM of Max Spies.
Adamo was swiftly past the German, but then suffered a typical sand crash with a front wheel washout, and Spies actually passed Renaux to sit in ninth by the end of lap four.
Herlings was streaking ahead as De Wolf caught Gajser, and fought into third with a gap to bridge in order to reach Febvre in second.
Adamo was also in good form after his crash, passing Spies and Renaux on lap six, then two laps later he toppled Gifting and Van de Moosdijk in consecutive circulations to reach seventh.
Only two more laps later he made an inside move on Fernandez, and looked set to stay there until the end.
By this time, Herlings begun to signal to pit lane that he was having issues, and his pitboard came out with the message of “No Clutch” in order to preserve the machine.
His team-mate Vialle advanced on Gajser, passing him for fourth on lap 12 of the eventual 17. De Wolf never stopped charging, and advanced on Febvre with three laps to go.
The Frenchman pushed on, but he suffered a massive crash that sent him over the handlebars, and was clipped by De Wolf as the Dutchman was unable to avoid him.
Amazingly, the champ remounted still in third, but with just a few corners to go his machine, possibly damaged in the heavy prang, stopped on the face of the jump.
He had lapped enough people to leave him in 13th position, those eight points enough to keep him in the top 10 overall, ninth ahead of Horgmo, who ended race two in ninth position after another solid ride.
Spies was the last rider on the lead lap in 12th position, but Van de Moosdijk was promoted into the top 10 by Febvre’s crash.
One of the best charges of the race was by Watson, who got up to seventh at the flag ahead of Gifting, which is where the two men finished overall.
It was the Brit’s best overall result since May 2022 at Maggiora.
The Swede’s finish was also his best since this round last year.
Adamo and Fernandez ended both race two, and the day overall, in fifth and sixth, while Vialle’s third wasn’t quite enough to get onto the podium.
That honour went to Gajser, his fifth podium of the year, with De Wolf a satisfied second.
The problems for Herlings didn’t impact his speed, just maybe his mood as he took his 120th career victory, and a record fifth win at Lommel, in his stride.
Febvre moved past Coenen into second in the series, 104 points behind Herlings. The Dutchman is looking strong, but he knows that nothing is decided yet.
The series switches back to a harder surface, the weekend after next, in Sweden at Uddevalla, where Febvre went 1-1-1 last year as Gifting drove the fans wild. Just what can this year bring for us?
Jeffrey Herlings: “It was a great weekend, just like last week we were topping every session.
“Two good starts today, I led every lap, Race 1 especially was really enjoyable. I had a small issue in race two so I had to manage my pace, but we kept the gap to around 15 seconds and I’m just happy to bring it home. I had a bit of a crash near the end so Kay got second, but I don’t really know by how much I won in the end, I just did what I had to do to win.
“That’s 60 points, massive for the championship. Now it’s about staying sharp, we’ve got five more races left to go and we need to work on the sand before Arnhem, but the team works extremely hard day in, day out.”
Photo courtesy Infront Moto Racing
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RESULTS AND STANDINGS:
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 34:33.732; 2. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:45.474; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), +0:46.826; 4. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:58.311; 5. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), +1:25.908; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +1:32.593; 7. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +1:37.688; 8. Isak Gifting (SWE, Yamaha), +1:42.078; 9. Ben Watson (GBR, Triumph), +1:51.325; 10. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Honda), +1:58.772.
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 34:39.461; 2. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:39.633; 3. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), +0:54.242; 4. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), +0:54.762; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +1:26.840; 6. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +1:28.648; 7. Ben Watson (GBR, Triumph), +1:30.752; 8. Isak Gifting (SWE, Yamaha), +1:43.225; 9. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Honda), +1:45.085; 10. Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, KTM), +1:48.011.
MXGP Overall – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 50 points; 2. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), 44 p.; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), 38 p.; 4. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), 36 p.; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 31 p.; 6. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), 29 p.; 7. Ben Watson (GBR, Triumph), 26 p.; 8. Isak Gifting (SWE, Yamaha), 26 p.; 9. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), 26 p.; 10. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Honda), 23 p.
MXGP – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 675 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), 571 p.; 3. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 566 p.; 4. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), 534 p.; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 450 p.; 6. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), 446 p.; 7. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), 425 p.; 8. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), 409 p.; 9. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), 345 p.; 10. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), 273 p.
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Camden McLellan (RSA, Triumph), 36:08.902; 2. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:05.898; 3. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), +0:10.765; 4. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:12.043; 5. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:32.445; 6. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +1:23.092; 7. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), +1:33.889; 8. Alve Callemo (SWE, Husqvarna), +1:55.155; 9. Valerio Lata (ITA, Honda), +2:00.388; 10. Scott Smulders (NED, Husqvarna), +2:10.032.
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Camden McLellan (RSA, Triumph), 35:50.135; 2. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), +0:06.119; 3. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:13.125; 4. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:21.012; 5. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:31.400; 6. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:50.612; 7. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +1:21.225; 8. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), +1:31.542; 9. Noel Zanocz (HUN, KTM), +2:09.613; 10. Alve Callemo (SWE, Husqvarna), +2:16.008.
MX2 Overall – Top 10 Classification:
1. Camden McLellan (RSA, Triumph), 50 points; 2. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), 42 p.; 3. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 42 p.; 4. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), 36 p.; 5. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), 31 p.; 6. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 29 p.; 7. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), 27 p.; 8. Alve Callemo (SWE, Husqvarna), 24 p.; 9. Noel Zanocz (HUN, KTM), 22 p.; 10. Valerio Lata (ITA, Honda), 22 p.
MX2 – World Championship Classification:
1. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), 668 points; 2. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 621 p.; 3. Camden McLellan (RSA, Triumph), 608 p.; 4. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 598 p.; 5. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), 542 p.; 6. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), 512 p.; 7. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), 416 p.; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, Honda), 355 p.; 9. Mathis Valin (FRA, Kawasaki), 352 p.; 10. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), 312 p.