QUALIFYING RACES

ALMONTE (Andalucia, Spain) 21st March 2026 – In front of a packed crowd of eager Spanish fans, the MXGP of Andalucia saw FIM Motocross World Championship racing for the first time at the Circuito di Motocross di Almonte, on an uncharacteristically soft surface for this part of the world that started to dry out as the sun hit the area for the afternoon’s action!

In a dominant display for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Lucas Coenen powered to his first race win of the year through the deep sand after an early pass on Tom Vialle. The new Honda HRC Petronas rider held on for second place, with Maxime Renaux bringing home a strong third place for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP.

Lucas’ victory completed a second perfect Saturday for the Belgian family, as Sacha Coenen had already taken his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing machine to the Qualifying Race win in the MX2 class.  There was another battle amongst the Triumph Racing Factory Team pairing of Camden McLellan and Guillem Farres, with the home hero losing second to the South African in the closing laps, but still taking a loudly-cheered third in front of his home fans!

Above all, it was fantastic to see the first European crowd of the season pack out the new venue to get their first in-person views of the riders in their 2026 guises! We should see even more of them here tomorrow!

There was an early indication of just how closely this GP could be contested in Free Practice, as red plate holder, for the first time in 1,602 days, Jeffrey Herlings hit the top of the first MXGP session for Honda HRC Petronas by a mere one-thousandth of a second over Lucas Coenen!

The Time Practice session saw Herlings and Coenen again battle it out, the top spot going back and forth between the two sand masters, until the Dutchman pulled clear by just three hundredths of a seconds with his final flying lap! Behind Coenen was Kay de Wolf, obviously well recovered from his hand injury to claim third in his first MXGP Time Practice for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing.  The stage was set for a showdown in the Saturday sun!

Sadly for Herlings, the only contest with Coenen was lost from the gate drop, as the Belgian teenager jumped ahead of his Dutch rival down the start straight, and suddenly it got worse for “The Bullet” as his front wheel dug in to the soft ground in the first corner, sending him over the bars!  De Wolf was unable to avoid the stricken Honda and went down as well, along with Fantic Factory Racing MXGP rider Brent van Doninck!

Vialle led the pack through the first and second corners, but Coenen swept around the Frenchman on the outside of the third turn to decisively take the lead, and from there he was never headed, making a break instantly, although he almost crashed in doing so as he got a corner wrong at the end of his second full lap!

Renaux held third ahead of the Venrooy KTM of Mattia Guadagnini, after the Italian survived his own scare in the first corner, while Calvin Vlaanderen was fifth for Red Bull Ducati Factory MX Team, until he got past the Italian with a fine inside move. 

With more to do, Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre had to make an early pass on Fantic Factory Racing MXGP’s Alberto Forato, then the defending Champion hunted down Guadagnini to take fifth on lap three.  He made the same calculating inside move on Vlaanderen, although he needed a little more aggression to make the Ducati man concede fourth place!

Herlings and De Wolf began to carve through the pack, swapping places several times between themselves as they did so! Meanwhile, Febvre soon caught Renaux, but his compatriot would not allow the Champ an easy pass and kept him at bay for the entire race!

Behind Vlaanderen’s fine fifth, the best Ducati result of the young season, came a spirited ride from Red Bull KTM Factory Racing star Andrea Adamo. With four laps to go, the Italian made a solid inside pass on the Monster Energy Yamaha of Tim Gajser, before hauling in Guadagnini to take sixth on the final lap!

Ben Watson collected the first points for Dirt Store Triumph in MXGP with ninth spot after working through from the very back, due to just missing the first turn melee, passing Forato with three laps to go! Herlings fought all the way to 11^th, a frustrating two and a half seconds behind the Fantic man, with De Wolf not far behind!

As Coenen cruised to a 15-second victory, the all-French battle nearly caught Vialle, but the youngest of the three re-took the red plate with this second position, and now has a four-point advantage over Febvre, with Coenen now third ahead of Herlings! 

For the second Saturday in a row this season, the young guns had their day in Qualifying.  Will Sunday swing back to the more experienced stars, or are the winds of change ready to brush them aside?!  Tomorrow will give us a super-tough sandy circuit to challenge every single one of them.  You don’t dare miss this one!

Lucas Coenen: “A win is never easy, but I really enjoyed it out there. I made a big mistake at one point, but I’m trying to push myself and learn, even on the difficult sections. The track is fun but very technical, so tomorrow is going to be tough, but I’m looking forward to some good battles.”

Tom Vialle: “I had a great start, which helped a lot, and I’m happy with that. The track was really tricky,  sandy on top but hard underneath so it was important to stay consistent. I had Maxime [Renaux] behind me, but I could control the gap. It’s a good Saturday, and we’ll work on a few things to be even better tomorrow.”

Maxime Renaux: “I was under a lot of pressure during the race and my arms were really pumped, so it was a tough one. I’m happy to finish in the top three, but we still have work to do with the bike. We’re not there yet, but it’s a good step and we’ll keep building for tomorrow.”

MXGP – Qualifying Race Classification: 1. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 24:43.682; 2. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), +0:15.550; 3. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:17.362; 4. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:18.264; 5. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Ducati), +0:28.722; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:31.581; 7. Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, KTM), +0:33.531; 8. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), +0:36.874; 9. Ben Watson (GBR, Triumph), +0:42.877; 10. Alberto Forato (ITA, Fantic), +0:44.653

MXGP – World Championship Classification: 1. Tom Vialle (FRA, HON), 59 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 55 p.; 3. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 52 p.; 4. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, HON), 50 p.; 5. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 42 p.; 6. Tim Gajser (SLO, YAM), 39 p.; 7. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 37 p.; 8. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 32 p.; 9. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, DUC), 30 p.; 10. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KAW), 28 p.;

After struggling with sickness in Argentina, Liam Everts made his presence felt with the fastest time in Free Practice for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, but only by a whisker after his last lap knocked Janis Reisulis off the top spot.  The Latvian was just eight hundredths of a second down for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2!

It was all change in the Time Practice session, however, as Camden McLellan set the top time for Triumph, showing again his strength in sandy going, while Simon Längenfelder took second, three tenths back for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, marginally ahead of Kawasaki Racing Team MX2’s Mathis Valin.

For the fourth straight race, however, a Reisulis brother on a Monster Energy Yamaha claimed the best start, as Janis did all he could to pull away from the pack!  The home crowd urged on Guillem Farres, who was instantly second, but the roars turned to howls of anguish as the Spaniard nearly came to grief with a brutally hard landing from a big jump into turn four of the opening lap!

Shaken slightly, he was powerless to prevent Sacha Coenen from blasting past him through the wave section, after the Belgian had already blitzed into third around the fast-starting SB Racing KTM of Jens Walvoort.  Valin was briefly fifth, but a charging McLellan had not started well, and passed the Frenchman by the end of the first full lap!

It took the South African until lap four to get past sand fly Walvoort, then the two Triumph riders got to snap at the heels of Coenen while the younger Reisulis brother enjoyed some clear air out front.

Längenfelder had also not gated well, having to fight past Walvoort just after Valin did on lap six, while Everts had a quiet race to seventh place, just ahead of Karlis Reisulis on his Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 machine. The Latvian, along with Dixon Racing Team Kawasaki rider Kay Karssemakers, both passed Walvoort on the final lap to put the Dutchman into a final tenth position.

It took until after two-thirds distance for Coenen to catch and pass Janis Reisulis for the lead, which he did with an inside line at the end of the longest jump-filled straight here on lap nine.  Farres and McLellan followed suit either side of the finish line jump to take second and third, and the Latvian also fell prey to Längenfelder, but the rookie still registered fifth place and is getting used to the pace and intensity of Grand Prix racing!

McLellan made a sweet pass on Farres to clinch second place with two laps to go, and the Spaniard just held off the reigning Champion for third to send the local fans into raptures!  Längenfelder’s fourth place, ahead of Janis Reisulis and Valin, was enough for the German to retain the red plate, but the Triumph boys are closing in!

Sacha Coenen’s fourth career Qualifying Race win still only leaves him in seventh place in the standings, but he is only 15 points down on Längenfelder, which goes to show just how competitive MX2 is this season!

Will the twins match today’s success to become the first ever twin brothers to win GPs on the same day?! There are four full races of action tomorrow for them to go for that, but many others will have their say! The atmosphere is building towards what should be a very well-attended Grand Prix Sunday tomorrow, and we can’t wait to see the latest developments in the still embryonic story of the 2026 MXGP series!

Sacha Coenen: “It was a difficult race, the track was really sketchy, but I made it happen. When I made the move, I just put my head down and focused on my laps. In the end I could control it, so I’m happy to bounce back from last weekend.”

MX2 – Qualifying Race Classification: 1. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 25:19.366; 2. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:03.021; 3. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), +0:05.149; 4. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:06.568; 5. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:09.961; 6. Mathis Valin (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:10.497; 7. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:33.532; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:42.496; 9. Kay Karssemakers (NED, Kawasaki), +0:44.722; 10. Jens Walvoort (NED, KTM), +0:51.704

MX2 – World Championship Classification: 1. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 57 points; 2. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 55 p.; 3. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 52 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 45 p.; 5. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 44 p.; 6. Mathis Valin (FRA, KAW), 43 p.; 7. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 42 p.; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 32 p.; 9. Cas Valk (NED, TM), 22 p.; 10. Jens Walvoort (NED, KTM), 22 p.; 

TIMETABLE

SUNDAY:

08:40 EMX125 Race 2, 09:25 MX2 Warm-up, 09:45 MXGP Warm-up, 10:30 EMX250 Race 2, 12:15 MX2 Race 1, 13:15 MXGP Race 1, 15:10 MX2 Race 2, 16:10 MXGP Race 2.