The Glimminge Motorstadion circuit, near the town of Uddevalla in south-western Sweden, was barely visible as thousands of fans in horned headwear gathered to cheer on their heroes at the MXGP of Sweden.
It was a record-breaking attendance figure of more than 28,000 fans who created a crackling atmosphere to the Uddevalla cliffsides.
With more sunlight than on Saturday, the track baked even harder than usual, and all of the riders across the classes were struggling for traction on the slick surface that demanded to be ridden with respect.
It was business as usual for Dutchman Jeffrey Herlings in MXGP, who completed another perfect 1-1-1 weekend to extend his winning streak, including qualifying races, to 11 straight race victories for Honda HRC Petronas, taking his first Sunday race wins in the MXGP class at his venue.
Frenchman Romain Febvre consolidated his second position in the Championship with second overall for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, while Tom Vialle made it two Frenchmen and two Honda HRC Petronas team-mates on the podium with third overall.
The MX2 class was won by Sacha Coenen, claiming his first GP victory for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing since Latvia over two months ago, with perfect timing as his Championship rivals struggled with various issues.
Belgium’s Liam Everts enjoyed his best GP of the season so far in second for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, as Camden McLellan extended his podium streak to four in a row with third overall for the Triumph Racing Factory Team.
Keeping the pattern of putting his name at the top of every single session across the weekend, Herlings shot to the top in warm-up by nearly a second and a half from the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP machine of Tim Gajser, with Febvre just a tenth further back in third.
There was hope for Norwegian near-home hero Kevin Horgmo with fourth place for Team Honda Motoblouz SR Motul, ahead of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Andrea Adamo.
It was Adamo who claimed just his second holeshot of the season in race one, but the two Hondas of Herlings and Vialle immediately sneaked to the inside of the Italian, who also lost out to the returning Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP rider Pauls Jonass.
The Latvian, who missed two GPs after his big crash at Foxhills last month, was in a feisty mood as he cut across Vialle to take second on the exit of the left-handed third corner in front of the cliffsides of fans.
Febvre was hassling Adamo for fourth, but followed his inside line before a jump, allowing Gajser to rail around the outside and pass him for fifth, very nearly clipping Adamo’s rear wheel on the downhill landing.
Behind the top six were the third Honda HRC Petronas of Ruben Fernandez and the second Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP of Maxime Renaux.
The crowd’s attentions were on the battle for ninth, however, as home hero Isak Gifting pushed his JK Racing Yamaha towards the back wheel of Jan Pancar on his TEM JP253 KTM.
The Slovenian slipped down the order with a mistake on lap two, promoting the Viking to ninth ahead of the Venrooy KTM Racing Team leader Jeremy Seewer.
The other Slovenian in the field, Tim Gajser, tried to make a move on Adamo on lap three but made a series of mistakes in trying, the last one putting him on the ground hard.
He was able to pick himself up quickly in ninth behind Gifting. A couple of laps later, Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Kay de Wolf, struggling with a small thumb injury from mid-week training, got past Seewer for tenth, before the Swiss veteran suffered a big crash on lap nine.
Out of the race immediately, he was unable to complete in race two despite taking the start, pulling in early on. It was a rough weekend for the three-time Uddevalla winner.
Herlings was disappearing into the distance, but the battle for second became an eight-wheeled freight train as Jonass kept Vialle at bay on his few attempts to close the gap, while Febvre had more frequent attacks fall short against Adamo.
Fernandez held sixth to the flag, ahead of the Yamaha trio of Renaux, Gifting, and Gajser. De Wolf rounded out the top 10.
Febvre finally forced his way past Adamo into fourth with two laps to go, on the same corner as he was famously passed on by Gifting last year.
Vialle’s third place put him within three points of Renaux for seventh in the Championship, while Jonass earned his best race finish since his 2-2 scores won him the MXGP of Portugal over two years ago.
Herlings put in a stunning 1:49.587 lap time on the very last circulation, two seconds faster than anyone else managed all race long, just to put an exclamation point on a 21-second race victory.
Race two began with a bang, which was the sound of riders hitting the floor on the entry to the first corner.
Gifting tangled with the Red Bull Ducati Factory Team rider Calvin Vlaanderen, who fell hard as a result, also bringing down Fantic Factory Racing MXGP man Brent van Doninck.
The Belgian came off worse with rib injuries that still need analysing, while the South African was also sidelined but no worse than shaken up by the impact. We wish them both a speedy recovery.
Gifting fell into the barriers but was able to get back on track, the crowd urging him on at every turn. He would recover to 14th, just outside the top 10 on the day with 11th overall.
At the front, Vialle took the holeshot, putting himself to the top of the series table with eight, one ahead of the absent Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Lucas Coenen.
However, the Frenchman also ran wide, placing sixth into turn two, as Febvre emerged with the lead ahead of Gajser, Herlings, Jonass, and Fernandez.
Herlings struck immediately, darting to the inside of Gajser on the third corner, then cutting into an inside rut to pass Febvre for the lead before half a lap was completed.
His team-mate Fernandez also displaced Jonass for fourth, as De Wolf ran seventh behind Vialle but in front of Adamo, Andrea Bonacorsi on the surviving Red Bull Ducati, and Renaux.
Vialle made good progress on lap two, getting ahead of Jonass on that third corner, then making an inside pass on Fernandez in the middle of the circuit to claim fourth and put himself into podium contention.
Herlings was a little more patient in this race, setting the fastest time on the sixth lap, although it wasn’t quite as fast as his fastest lap from race one. Gajser attacked Febvre briefly but was unable to make a move for second.
Jonass wasn’t quite able to hold the pace after his race one efforts, and dropped behind De Wolf, Adamo, and finally Bonacorsi, who took eighth with three laps to go.
Ninth for the Latvian was still good enough for fourth overall, his best result since that 2024 Portuguese win.
Kevin Horgmo came out on top in a fantastic back-and-forth battle with Renaux for tenth, earning him tenth overall behind the Frenchman.
Meanwhile, Fernandez was able to hold De Wolf back, helped by a small slip-off by the Dutchman which limited him to sixth ahead of Adamo, but the Italian would finish seventh overall ahead of De Wolf.
In sixth overall, Fernandez did enough to draw level with Adamo for fifth in the Championship.
Gajser’s third put him into fifth overall for the day behind Jonass, but that was sufficient to lift him above Coenen into third in the championship.
Vialle’s fifth podium in the premier class raised him above Renaux for seventh in the series, but Febvre was unable to get close to Herlings, who ultimately won by over six seconds. The Frenchman’s second place was the 200th top three race finish of his career.
The race was cut short with two laps to go by a red flag, as MX-Handel Husqvarna rider Kevin Brumann came together with the MRT Racing Team Beta of Jago Geerts on a downhill jump, and was lying still on the track for a few moments.
The Swiss rider did get up, albeit a little wobbly, but the Belgian has suffered a leg injury which has been announced as being in plaster, but still needing assessment by his doctor back home.
Herlings’ 121st career GP victory puts him 116 points clear of reigning World Champion Febvre, and the Dutchman heads to his home GP next week with high expectations of building that lead further! If anyone can stop Herlings, it will be a remarkable achievement, but the atmosphere at Arnhem is bound to be electric.
Jeffrey Herlings: “I feel like I am riding well and I feel really good on the bike, also at tracks like this one. My whole career I struggled with starts and now they have got better again.
“In the first race Tom and I were both fighting into the first corner, and in the second one my jump off the gate was not the best, but I came out third, made the passes early and then had a comfortable lead.
“With the sun so low it felt a bit sketchy, so I did just enough. We won every session, led every lap and won both races, so I am super happy. Now I really look forward to my home GP.”
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), 35:13.146; 2. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), +0:21.392; 3. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), +0:22.049; 4. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:24.220; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:27.045; 6. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:28.460; 7. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:31.140; 8. Isak Gifting (SWE, Yamaha), +0:32.233; 9. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), +0:33.422; 10. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:33.544
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 29:32.199; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:06.226; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), +0:11.356; 4. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), +0:15.227; 5. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:21.246; 6. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:33.653; 7. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:39.734; 8. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, Ducati), +0:42.304; 9. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), +0:45.861; 10. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, Honda), +0:54.934
MXGP Overall – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, HON), 50 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 40 p.; 3. Tom Vialle (FRA, HON), 38 p.; 4. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KAW), 34 p.; 5. Tim Gajser (SLO, YAM), 32 p.; 6. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 31 p.; 7. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 30 p.; 8. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 26 p.; 9. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 24 p.; 10. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 21 p.
MXGP – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, HON), 735 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 619 p.; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, YAM), 575 p.; 4. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 566 p.; 5. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 483 p.; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 483 p.; 7. Tom Vialle (FRA, HON), 454 p.; 8. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 449 p.; 9. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 375 p.; 10. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KAW), 312 p.
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 33:45.306; 2. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:01.264; 3. Camden McLellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:11.257; 4. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:14.197; 5. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:29.037; 6. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), +0:35.800; 7. Maxime Grau (FRA, Honda), +0:37.229; 8. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), +0:38.223; 9. Kay Karssemakers (NED, Kawasaki), +0:59.047; 10. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +1:11.390
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 35:19.455; 2. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:02.442; 3. Camden McLellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:09.849; 4. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), +0:30.681; 5. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:34.913; 6. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:39.632; 7. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:44.675; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, Honda), +0:45.290; 9. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), +1:21.804; 10. Noel Zanocz (HUN, KTM), +1:29.257
MX2 Overall – Top 10 Classification:
1. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 50 points; 2. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 44 p.; 3. Camden McLellan (RSA, TRI), 40 p.; 4. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 33 p.; 5. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 33 p.; 6. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, KTM), 32 p.; 7. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 25 p.; 8. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), 25 p.; 9. Maxime Grau (FRA, HON), 24 p.; 10. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 23 p.
MX2 – World Championship Classification:
1. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 701 points; 2. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 677 p.; 3. Camden McLellan (RSA, TRI), 656 p.; 4. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, KTM), 640 p.; 5. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 595 p.; 6. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 552 p.; 7. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 441 p.; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 381 p.; 9. Mathis Valin (FRA, KAW), 352 p.; 10. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), 341 p.