The MXGP of China, the 18th round of 19 in the 2026 FIM World Motocross Championships, was run in humid conditions in Shanghai’s Oriental Beauty Valley and that made it tough for the riders.
Dazzling entertainment as well as cooling mist from the high-tech grandstands kept the excited fans in attendance hooked to the action all day long, and the riders responded with some fantastic racing around this venue for the second year in a row.
In MXGP, it was the new world champion who continued his domination, as Dutchman Jeffrey Herlings took another clean sweep of every single race and practice session on the way to his 12th GP win of the season for Honda HRC Petronas.
He was chased all the way home by Frenchman Romain Febvre, who looked as close as he has done all season to beating Herlings, but had to settle for second overall for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP.
Herlings’ French team-mate Tom Vialle took third overall for his fourth straight podium result in succession.
The MX2 World Championship had the possibility of being decided during the weekend’s GP, but the rider who was most likely to keep it alive did exactly what he had to do, which was win the Grand Prix overall.
South African Camden McLellan put together a determined charge to take his fourth GP victory for the Triumph Racing Factory Team, making his team-mate Guillem Farres wait another week to try and claim the title, even though the Spaniard made it a fourth 1-2 for the team with a second race win earning him second overall.
Third place went to Belgian rider Liam Everts, who made it four podium finishes in a row for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing.
The MX2 class in particular delivered some exhilarating action, with the final results in doubt right up to the final corner in both races.
The thousands of Chinese fans got into the racing and made themselves heard, and no doubt left the venue happy to have enjoyed such a spectacle.
With much attention falling towards the streak of Herlings, of being top of the time sheets over the past 35 consecutive races and practice sessions combined before Sunday’s action, the morning warm-up had the feel of a timed practice session, as Febvre took up the challenge of halting Herlings in at least one aspect of his dominance.
In the end, Herlings prevailed with his seventh and final lap to go over a second clear of the Frenchman, with the TEM JP253 KTM of Jan Pancar in third, nearly three seconds back.
Vialle showed his usual starting prowess to claim the holeshot in race one, his tenth of the season, although Herlings was right on his case after muscling ahead of Febvre down the start straight.
Pancar was behind the Kawasaki into the second corner, but then Febvre made a mistake through the third corner that put him back to fifth.
As that was happening, Herlings had leapt to the inside of Vialle to take the lead from his teammate, and set the fastest lap of the weekend as he tried to bolt away from the pack on lap two.
Febvre did all he could to undo his error, passing Swiss rider Jeremy Seewer on the Venrooy KTM, then Pancar, then the lone Red Bull KTM Factory Racing pilot Andrea Adamo, to get back to third by the end of the first full lap.
Seewer was looking racy as he got past the factory KTM to claim fourth, as Pancar slipped back to seventh behind the second Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP man Pauls Jonass.
Behind them, Calvin Vlaanderen held eighth for the Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team ahead of New Zealand’s Dylan Walsh (KTM Australia) and the MRT Racing Team Beta of Jago Geerts.
Adamo got a right-handed corner wrong on lap two and dropped the bike, putting himself back to tenth in front of Brian Hsu, who was making history in racing the first Chinese machine ever to compete in MXGP.
The German was to take 11-12 on the day for 12th overall on his 350cc JHL Factory Racing machine.
Geerts passed Walsh at about the same time to claim eighth, which he held to the flag ahead of Adamo, who got back past the British-born New Zealander on lap nine.
While Herlings built his lead over the two chasing Frenchmen, Seewer was a lonely fourth while Pancar hunted down Jonass, passing the Latvian for fifth on lap 10.
A lap later and suddenly the Swiss rider made a small mistake to drop to seventh behind Vlaanderen.
This put Pancar into fourth, his best finish in MXGP for over a year! Jonass, Vlaanderen, and Seewer would stay in fifth to seventh positions.
On lap 14, Febvre put in an extra charge, and Vialle felt the pressure enough to run wide in a left-handed hairpin, giving his compatriot an easy pass into second place.
From there, Herlings managed his advantage until Febvre backed it off in the closing laps, leaving an eight-second gap between the leading pair at the finish.
It looked like Vialle had repeated his holeshot for race two, but Herlings made a savage cut to dart across the line millimetres ahead of his team-mate.
This puts the Honda HRC Petronas men just one award apart at the top of this year’s contest, with two more opportunities left to go.
Behind them, Febvre was snapping at their heels from the outset, while Vlaanderen and Seewer went elbow-to-elbow for fourth until turn four, when the Ducati man forced the Swiss veteran to back off, allowing Adamo through into fifth, until he was passed by Pancar.
The Slovenian then clipped Vlaanderen’s back wheel in a left-hander, and went to ground.
Jonass took the opportunity to move into fifth ahead of Seewer as Adamo got held up by Pancar’s machine. Jan himself got up quickly enough to hold tenth behind Geerts and Walsh, and he passed the New Zealander on the following lap.
Febvre was onto the back wheel of Vialle, and the younger Frenchman landed slightly off-track on lap four, just about holding onto second while Herlings began to ease away slightly.
On the same lap, Adamo managed to restore factory pride by passing Seewer for sixth and staying in the position of top KTM.
Later on, Pancar surprised the Swiss rider with an inside line that led to a slight collision, but both men stayed up and Pancar had got to seventh, good enough to go one better than his Türkiye result and claim sixth overall, his best of the year.
Seewer’s eighth would leave him there overall behind Adamo, while Geerts and Walsh would take ninth and tenth in both race two and the overall verdict.
Febvre had managed to close in on Vialle by lap eight, and passed him on the inside in a left-handed corner, as Vialle then got it wrong over another jump and ran briefly off-track again, effectively ending his challenge for second.
Vlaanderen and Jonass held station in fourth and fifth, giving them those positions overall as well. It was the Ducati man’s equal best result of the year, while Jonass has the chance of catching the absent Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing rider Kay de Wolf for ninth in the Championship in the final round.
Talking about catching, Febvre did exactly that on Herlings in the final few laps, visibly pushing to end the Dutchman’s streak and finally get a Sunday win with that #1 plate.
He got the gap to just under a second as Herlings responded, but then the Frenchman got a jump all wrong and nearly went over the handlebars.
Finally throwing in the towel, he settled for his 101st career podium instead. Vialle’s third overall put him one point ahead of Adamo in their battle for fourth in the championship, as they have both passed the total of the absent Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Lucas Coenen.
They are also battling for the position of top rookie in this year’s MXGP class.
Herlings has kept his streak going, now up to 38 sessions of practice and racing, as he registers his 124th career GP victory as well as his 235th race win. The crazy numbers keep mounting up for Herlings and there is still one more round to go.
Jeffrey Herlings: “Both races I had a bit of an issue with the humidity, with the sweating and the goggles fogging up. That is why I pulled away at the beginning and then I was struggling a bit. Normally I never have a problem with it, it is just because it is extremely humid here in China. I managed to do enough in both races, mainly the second one, to win.
“Romain rode really good, I think it is one of his best races all year. We had a very dominant performance with Honda HRC Petronas all year and we got out of the starts really, really good. They give me a good bike and they are working extremely hard, so it was a great weekend once again and I am looking forward to Australia.”
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), 35:14.056; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:08.333; 3. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), +0:12.236; 4. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), +0:54.302; 5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), +0:57.142; 6. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Ducati), +1:01.128; 7. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KTM), +1:03.868; 8. Jago Geerts (BEL, Beta), +1:23.353; 9. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +1:47.688; 10. Dylan Walsh (NZL, KTM), +1:49.387.
MXGP – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda); 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki); 3. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda); 4. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Ducati); 5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki); 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM); 7. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM); 8. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KTM); 9. Jago Geerts (BEL, Beta); 10. Dylan Walsh (NZL, KTM).
MXGP Overall – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 50 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), 44 p.; 3. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), 40 p.; 4. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Ducati), 33 p.; 5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), 32 p.; 6. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), 32 p.; 7. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 27 p.; 8. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KTM), 27 p.; 9. Jago Geerts (BEL, Beta), 25 p.; 10. Dylan Walsh (NZL, KTM), 22 p.
MXGP – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 915 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), 752 p.; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), 659 p.; 4. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), 593 p.; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 592 p.; 6. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 566 p.; 7. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), 523 p.; 8. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), 449 p.; 9. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), 428 p.; 10. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), 400 p.
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 1 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Camden McLellan (RSA, Triumph), 34:10.515; 2. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:01.575; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:01.982; 4. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), +0:16.578; 5. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:20.696; 6. Kay Karssemakers (NED, Kawasaki), +0:27.271; 7. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:28.402; 8. Byron Dennis (AUS, KTM), +0:58.746; 9. Maxime Grau (FRA, Honda), +1:07.035; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Ducati), +1:12.143.
MX2 – Grand Prix Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), 34:19.096; 2. Camden McLellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:01.038; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:01.979; 4. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:22.688; 5. Kay Karssemakers (NED, Kawasaki), +0:33.503; 6. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:50.684; 7. Byron Dennis (AUS, KTM), +0:57.121; 8. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, KTM), +1:07.788; 9. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Ducati), +1:09.599; 10. Maxime Grau (FRA, Honda), +1:05.403.
MX2 Overall – Top 10 Classification:
1. Camden McLellan (RSA, Triumph), 47 points; 2. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), 43 p.; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), 40 p.; 4. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, KTM), 35 p.; 5. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), 32 p.; 6. Kay Karssemakers (NED, Kawasaki), 31 p.; 7. Byron Dennis (AUS, KTM), 27 p.; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), 25 p.; 9. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Ducati), 23 p.; 10. Maxime Grau (FRA, Honda), 23 p.
MX2 – World Championship Classification:
1. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), 859 points; 2. Camden McLellan (RSA, Triumph), 811 p.; 3. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 775 p.; 4. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, KTM), 768 p.; 5. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), 742 p.; 6. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), 644 p.; 7. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), 528 p.; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, Honda), 414 p.; 9. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), 401 p.; 10. Kay Karssemakers (NED, Kawasaki), 353 p.