MXGP of Andalucia 

MXGP 2026    Round 2 

Podium number two as Herlings continues his excellent start in Andalucia

Honda HRC PETRONAS’ Jeffrey Herlings made it two podiums out of two, with a strong two-two performance at the MXGP of Andalucia. Held at the new, sandy Almonte circuit in the south of Spain, the Dutchman got two good starts and quickly worked his way into second place in both races, continuing his excellent Sunday form and keeping himself within touching distance of the championship lead.

After a Saturday crash in the qualifying race left him with 11^thgate-pick, the Honda CRF450RW rider overcame the outside gate and rounded the first turn inside the top five. From there, he tried his best to get himself into the lead as quickly as possible, but he was beaten to the punch and although he tried to catch the leader, he was never able to make a battle for the top spot. It is still an excellent start to his Honda career though and with plenty of racing left to go, he knows that with this sort of form, he’ll be fighting for first place more often than not.

Teammate Tom Vialle also continued his strong start to the season by going two-five-six over the course of the weekend, including another holeshot in the first moto today. In what was his first European sand race in over three years, the speed was excellent for the Frenchman, but he wasn’t quite able to maintain the momentum over the duration of the two motos. Still, he has a lot to be happy with in the first two GPs and next week’s track in Switzerland should really play to his strengths and he hopes to be regaining the championship-leading red-plate which adorned his Honda CRF450RW today.

The third member of the 450 squad, Ruben Fernandez, came into this weekend under the weather, but determined to try his best in front of the passionate home crowd. A tough qualifier yesterday meant he had a lower gate-pick than normal and unfortunately that meant he was collected up in a first turn incident in race one. Remounting at the back of the field, the Spaniard put on a big charge – much to the excitement of the crowd – and worked his way up to 12^th place. With renewed optimism that his speed was good, he avoided any dramas around the first turns of race two and found himself in sixth place. Unfortunately the energy he expended in race one, combined with his depleted capacity from his illness meant that he wasn’t able to maintain that, and although he tried his best to maintain a top 10 finish, he did slip to 11^th on the last lap. Definitely not the home GP he was looking for, but Switzerland is next weekend, which is a track he won the qualifying race at last year.

Also heading to Switzerland with optimism is Valerio Lata, after the young Italian showed what he was capable of with a fourth place in race two. The Honda CRF250RW rider got better and better over the course of the weekend and after an eighth in race one, the fourth place showed his real speed on the tricky sandy surface. Now the goal will be to repeat that feat on a more favourable Frauenfeld facility, which is where Honda HRC PETRONAS will be heading for the third round of the 2026 MXGP World Championships.

Ruben Fernandez   ⁷⁰

I gave it everything I had this weekend to try and tough it out for my fans and give back to everyone who came to support me this weekend. The first race, I got taken out right on the first corner which made things really difficult, but I got all the way up to 12th which I was happy with. Then in race two, I got a much better start, but having to work so hard in the first race and just not feeling so great all weekend caught up with me and I dropped down the field. In the end, 11th is all I could do but I do want to thank the crowd and hopefully I can get back to my best next weekend.

Tom Vialle   ¹⁶

I’m not totally happy with the end result, but there were definitely some good points and at the end of this GP, I sit third in the championship which is still positive and overall I’m in a good place. This was a tough track and while my speed was good, and I got some good starts over the weekend, I know there is still a lot to work on. The GP weekend is something I still have to get used to a bit, but after two GPs, to have held the red-plate, won a qualifier, and been battling up front in the motos I have to be pleased with the start to the season.

Jeffrey Herlings   ⁸⁴

The goal is to get podiums, and I’ve done that in Argentina and now here so I have to be happy with that. I need to improve my Saturday performances because I have dropped a lot of points there, but I’m in a good position and we still have 51 races to go, so there is plenty of racing left and in Argentina I was the best, and today I was second best. I was a little bit sore after the crash yesterday but no excuses, I rode as well as I could and I’m still in a good position so I want to keep it rolling.

Valerio Lata   ¹⁸

After yesterday, I knew I had to step up and perform at a higher level and just start to show the speed I am capable of. Already the first moto was an improvement, with a good start and staying inside the top 10, but I still felt I could do better and the second moto was much more of what I hope and expect. I got another good start and made a couple of passes around the first three corners to move into second, which is where I stayed for the majority of the race. I dropped a couple of spots at the end, but there is still a lot of positives and I’m glad to be heading to Switzerland with much more confidence

Marcus Pereira de Freitas

HRC General Manager – MXGP

A new GP always makes things interesting, and I think they did a really good job with the track to create a challenge for everyone. It was definitely a rollercoaster for the team, but overall there were a lot of things that we can be happy with from all the riders. We definitely can’t question all of their desire and effort that they put in, and there were some good results too. Hopefully Valerio can take this result and build upon it and really start to show his true speed. We know Ruben will do better when he is fully healthy, because even today he showed great speed. Tom and Jeffrey continue to impress and after two rounds they sit second and third in the championship so that is very positive. Switzerland looks like being a completely different experience so we’ll be making sure to get our riders as prepared as possible.