It’s the 15th round of 20 in the 2025 FIM Motocross World Championships in Belgium this weekend with everything to play for as the season winds down.
The 2025 FIM Motocross World Championships has a quick turnaround for the MXGP of Flanders this weekend, as the harder terrain and the hillsides of Loket make way for the undulating, infamously deep sand of the Stedelijk Motocrossterrein circuit of Lommel, one that even the toughest of competitors dread as one of the most physically demanding venues in the world of motocross.
Despite Lommel’s historic reputation, established immediately in 1981 when Team USA famously took an upset win in the Trophée des Nations, their first in any team competition but the start of a 13-year unbeaten streak in such events, the first Grand Prix held there wasn’t until 1990, when Finnish rider Pekka Vehkonen took both race wins in the 250cc class.
The venue only gained a regular spot on the calendar from 2008, although it took two years out in 2012, when it hosted the Motocross of Nations for the only time, and in 2013, when the series went to Bastogne instead. The top winners all-time here are Jeffrey Herlings and Jorge Prado, who have each won four GPs in the deep Belgian sand.
The most successful rider at Lommel who is racing this weekend is Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP star Jago Geerts, who won for three years running in MX2, from 2021 to 2023.
The MXGP class comes to Flanders with the smallest gap between the top two in the Championship since the very beginning of the season, as the red-plate holder for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, Romain Febvre, has just 10 points over Belgian teenager Lucas Coenen, who comes to his home Grand Prix with a two-round winning streak for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing.
Behind them, Glenn Coldenhoff has had a run of finishing third or fourth overall in each of the last four GPs as he tries to lock down a world championship bronze medal for the second time in his career, and the first one for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP.
The MX2 world championship has been full of unpredictable results, with the podium positions only being repeated once all season, but Simon Längenfelder has more than doubled his career GP win tally this year, and holds a 47-point advantage in the championship over fellow Red Bull KTM Factory Racing star Andrea Adamo.
Reigning champ Kay de Wolf is another 12 points further back for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, and won overall last year in Flanders, despite Längenfelder winning the second race. Even with Adamo’s poor record at Lommel, this could see a titanic scrap between the title combatants.
The leading Belgian in the MX2 World Championship is Sacha Coenen, who won his only GP this year in the sand of Latvia for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, and will look to improve his relatively modest record at the Lommel circuit. The other top Belgians such as Geerts, JM Racing Honda’s Brent van Doninck, and VNT Racing KTM’s Nicholas Vennekens will all look to get their home crowd cheering in the GP classes.
The EMX125 European Championship holds its final round this weekend, and the series is tremendously close between Italian Racestore KTM Factory Juniors rider Nicolò Alvisi and the new FIM Junior World Champion from France, Mano Faure on the VHR VJC Yamaha Official EMX125 squad.
They sit just six points apart, and with roughly equal results in the sandy races so far this year, it’s anyone’s guess as to whose nerve will hold to tie down the title.
Filippo Mantovani of the Beddini KTM Racing Team sits in third, while Belgian stars Jarne Bervoets, team-mate to Faure, and the Fantic Factory Racing EMX125 rider Douwe van Mechlegen, only just missed the podium in the sand of Finland, so they would dearly love to get up there on home ground.
The EMX Open European Championship has its single round this weekend at Lommel, and Czech rider Jakub Teresak will defend his title for KMP Honda Racing Team by DVAG, although he will have competition again from last year’s runner-up Jere Haavisto on the SILVE Racing KTM, and first race winner from 2024, Micha-Boy de Waal.
The 2008 MX2 GP winner Gert Krestinov will also line up in this class, as will early-season EMX250 red plate holder Adrien Petit, who could be a real threat with his beach racing experience in the deep stuff at Lommel.
Latvian Mairis Pumpurs made a strong showing in his home GP earlier this season, so he could also have something to say about the podium places, as could French Tech 32 rider Tom Guyon, who scored the very first points for Triumph in MXGP at Ernée this season.
The MXGP of Flanders will be a gruelling and challenging weekend for everybody that takes to the start line, and the racing could be some of the best this season, with many riders able to challenge on a circuit most of them know extremely well.
It’s coming down to the smallest of margins in MXGP at the top of the championship table.
Romain Febvre took two wins from the three races at Loket, but a tiny slip in race one on Sunday meant that Lucas Coenen still caught up by five points over the weekend, leaving the gap at just 10 between them as they head to Lommel.
In terms of their form in the Belgian sand, as usual it is Febvre who has the strongest history here, with six career podium appearances including two GP wins, in 2021 and 2023, both of them against such sand-masters as Jeffrey Herlings and Jorge Prado.
Third last year, even on a comeback from injury, the strong Frenchman is not to be underestimated in the heavy going.
Coenen, meanwhile, had a crash-affected GP last year to score 5-8 finishes for seventh overall.
Two seconds behind Jago Geerts in 2023, plus his first ever EMX250 victory in 2022, show that he’s not allergic to the sand, so the question is if the young pretender can cope with the pressure of his home GP to bring the fight to Febvre.
Glenn Coldenhoff took a race win at Lommel in 2022, and has finished third overall here on four occasions over the years. A 6-6 for fifth overall last year shows that he can get the Fantic around Lommel quickly, and his 43-point advantage over Ruben Fernandez in the battle for third is looking healthy. The Honda HRC pilot missed last year’s event and took a best race finish of sixth in 2023.
Although he doesn’t like to be classed as a sand specialist, Calvin Vlaanderen has taken his best results this season in the soft stuff, including his first podium of the season in Finland for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP.
He has finished second overall twice at the venue just down the road from the team’s workshop, and for sure he will lift the blue brand’s spirits if he can match or even better that in 2025.
Andrea Bonacorsi has been strong in the sand this year for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP, and an improvement on his ninth position last year is likely. He pushed Coenen to the limit in EMX250 three years ago, and could be a surprise force this weekend as he tries to defend sixth in the series from Maxime Renaux.
The Frenchman is fighting through another injury-affected season, but has twice got on the podium here in MX2, so if the body is strong enough, he could put in a good result, maybe even enough to bridge the two-point gap to Bonacorsi.
Aruba.it Ducati Factory MX Team rider Jeremy Seewer is not a sand specialist, but now up to eighth in the standings he will do all he can to grind out a result. He has climbed the podium twice here in the past, but a return in 2025 would be a surprise.
Jago Geerts, who had that winning streak at Lommel from 2021 to 2023 in MX2, needs seven points to move past the injured Kevin Horgmo for 11th in the Championship, and if he gets a start like he did at Lugo in May then he could even be a threat to win again! He will have no shortage of fan support at his home GP.
Ben Watson for MRT Racing Team Beta has happy memories of Lommel after two race wins and three podium finishes in MX2, including the Grand Prix victory at the last of three rounds held here in 2020.
Tenth overall in 2023 is something he will be looking to match or better on the Italian machine.
Brian Bogers took his single career GP victory here in 2022 and could again be strong for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP, while Roan van de Moosdijk has memories of a race win in MX2 and second overall here in 2020 as he continues to campaign for the KTM Kosak Team.
Finally, Brent van Doninck is a sand master himself, with the JM Racing Honda team workshop within sight of the finish line jump, and in a year where he has troubled the top ten on many occasions, he could be a nuisance with a good start this weekend.
The most powerful bikes at the track will be a challenge for the very fittest riders on one of the toughest circuits in the world, and the MXGP elite will be tested to the maximum this weekend, which should make for some amazing racing.
© Photo Infront Moto Racing
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LEADING STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 14:
MXGP – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 678 points; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 668 p.; 3. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 494 p.; 4. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 451 p.; 5. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 392 p.; 6. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, FAN), 370 p.; 7. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 368 p.; 8. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, DUC), 327 p.; 9. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 325 p.; 10. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 305 p.
MX2 – World Championship Classification:
1. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 665 points; 2. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 618 p.; 3. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 606 p.; 4. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 520 p.; 5. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 492 p.; 6. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 464 p.; 7. Camden McLellan (RSA, TRI), 417 p.; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 330 p.; 9. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 306 p.; 10. Cas Valk (NED, KTM), 299 p.