Febvre got around Isak Gifting’s JK Racing Yamaha to take fourth place, but coming out of the wooded section towards the Godzilla hill, Lawrence put in a stunning burst of speed to take the lead from Coenen! From there, he was never to be caught, despite Lucas doing all he could to stay with him, sometimes bettering his lap times, but not often!

Eli Tomac had lifted his Star Racing Yamaha up to fifth by the end of lap one, ahead of the first MX2 machine of Sacha Coenen.  Then came MXGP riders Gifting and Ruben Fernandez, before De Wolf started to hassle the big bikes on his Nestaan Husqvarna. Jeremy Seewer was initially tenth for Aruba.it Ducati, but was passed by the Kawasaki Racing Team MX2 bike of Mathis Valin.

Lawrence’s teammate Webster had to pick himself off the floor in turn one, and had got up to 27th by the end of the first full lap! Febvre washed out in the second turn of the third lap, allowing Tomac and Sacha Coenen past.  The Frenchman took two laps to get back around Coenen’s 250cc Red Bull KTM, but Tomac was just a little out of reach.

In fact, “Captain America” nearly caught Gajser for third in the final laps, finishing a frustrated fourth less than two seconds behind the Slovenian!  His teammate Justin Cooper on the 250cc Star Racing Yamaha got up to tenth after a last-lap collision with Sacha Coenen, which damaged the Belgian’s bike to the point where he couldn’t finish the final lap, cruelly demoting him to 20th place! 

De Wolf and Valin swapped places several times until the Dutchman finally finished eighth as the top 250 rider, with Gifting a solid seventh, Fernandez sixth, and Febvre fifth. Webster got through to a brilliant 15th position to keep Australia as high as third overall after race one, but the USA and France were level on points, a situation they were to repeat at the end of the day!  Belgium and Spain, for whom Guillem Farres finished 16th, were tied for fourth going into race two, but Jett’s seven-second margin of victory left onlookers stunned at his riding.

Open/MX2

There were two surprise leaders at the start of race two, after Hunter Lawrence sped across the Fox Holeshot Award line first, but made a mess of the right-left corners that followed, allowing Team Brazil’s Fabio Santos, then Team Slovenia’s Jan Pancar, to briefly lead through the wooded section.  Despite nearly swapping out on his Honda HRC machine, Hunter emerged from the woods back in front, and like his brother before him sped away from the pack. 

Santos fell back rapidly to eighth by the end of the first lap, as Valentin Guillod duelled with Pancar for second, the Slovenian holding his ground from the Swiss privateer.  Behind them, Honda HRC’s Jo Shimoda was scrapping with home hero RJ Hampshire, and the pair moved steadily forward to sit second and third at the end of lap six, until they came together at the top of the biggest hill, the American coming off worse and having to pick up his Rockstar Energy Husqvarna!

Liam Everts was plugging away on his own Nestaan Husqvarna 450, in the Open class, and looked smooth ahead of the Monster Energy Yamaha of Renaux and Fantic Factory Racing MXGP’s Andrea Bonacorsi. De Wolf was again the top 250 rider on a circuit that really suited the more powerful 450s, and battled past Cooper to eventually finish eighth again, this time with teammate Calvin Vlaanderen right behind him as a buffer against Cooper.

While Hunter Lawrence cruised to another Australian victory, so Webster again had to recover from a first corner crash, this time getting further up, to 13th, enabling the team to drop the P15 score from race one, if all went to plan in race three.

Hampshire caught back up to Pancar, who was riding brilliantly in third, but fell over the TEM JP253 KTM’s back wheel in the corner at the end of Pit Lane, before he suffered a heavier fall on a steep downhill with two laps to go!  The battered American finished in seventh, just ahead of De Wolf.  Bonacorsi put in Team Italy’s best result of sixth place behind Renaux, and Everts impressed with fourth behind a jubilant Pancar.  Slovenia were eighth overall, and surely able to drop a P37 in MX2 race one from Jaka Peklaj.

The troubles for Hampshire had cost Team USA any margin for error in the final race, as they were one point behind the Australians, who had the two Lawrence brothers in the final outing.  France weren’t out of it, just two points further behind, but more issues for Sacha Coenen had put the Belgians some way back in fourth ahead of Team Italy, who were looking to drop the P25 from Antonio Cairoli in race one.  It was technically all to play for, except that Team Australia had the two brothers, with an average winning margin of eight seconds, set to work in tandem against the rest of the world!

 MXGP/Open

As is so often the case with Motocross, the expected outcome doesn’t become reality at all! Jo Shimoda made it a second Honda HRC Fox Holeshot of the afternoon, with Lucas Coenen chasing and Isak Gifting initially third ahead of the Lawrence brothers!  In a wretched day for the Germans, Roczen was down in the second corner already, but never gave up in a strong recovery to 12th.

Hunter made great progress again through the woods, and exited in third place, hot on the heels of Coenen before roaring past him up Godzilla hill to take second!  At the top of that hill, Jett Lawrence collided with Gifting on the exit, putting both of them on the floor, mercifully before they started coming back downhill!  It put the Aussie superstar down in 11th at the end of lap one, giving the crowd a treat as he got creative with the battered circuit in order to overtake! 

Meanwhile, his brother was doing his part as he launched past Shimoda over the finish line jump, with Coenen following him past along the start straight!  The Belgian kept on digging in, not letting Hunter relax one iota!  Behind Shimoda, Everts had the close company of Tomac, whose teammate Hampshire was two places behind Jett, giving the US some hope!  The French, however, still had Febvre and Renaux inside the top ten and the pressure was on both teams in the battle for second.

Tomac moved past Everts on lap three, and suddenly Fernandez fell spectacularly from seventh place as he attempted a pass on Febvre.  The Spaniard was out of the reckoning, as was his country.  Jett put a block pass on his rival from last year’s MXoN, Tim Gajser, and was up to seventh by the end of lap five.

Up front, Lucas finally pushed too hard to stay with Hunter and crashed at the top of the circuit, able to remount with a damaged bike and able to limp home to tenth. Despite Liam doing all he could in an eventual seventh, there would be no podium for Belgium, who would take fourth on the day. 

On lap ten Tomac pressured his way past Shimoda through the woods to take second place, with Jett up to fourth past Everts, who then fell victim to Febvre!  The joy of the Nations unfolded as rivals almost alien to each other battled freely in pursuit of glory for their country!  Febvre tried to get past Shimoda to hold onto the runner-up spot for France, and did so to claim an eventual fifth, but not before Gajser had gone past them both to get into fourth!  And it wasn’t as if the Slovenian was fighting for a losing cause, as Pancar took 14th position, good enough to lift their team into a best-ever finish of fifth!

Febvre had done his bit, and Hampshire was out after another crash, so with Tomac unable to catch Hunter for the lead, the French looked to be on for second place, until Gifting found his way past Renaux in the middle of the circuit to take eighth in the race and knock France back to third overall! 

With Italy in sixth, Gifting’s move, together with the results of Alvin Ostlund and Albin Gerhardsson, gave Sweden seventh overall, their best result since 2002!  There was no stopping Team Australia however, who won by a mammoth 14 points to claim their second straight Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations trophy!  Team USA lost out for just the second time on home soil, but with all the turmoil before the event they must have still been satisfied, and France’s podium was solid considering the inexperience of their MX2 rider, as they scored with the consistency of three fifth places and two ninths!

All in all though, the winners were the Motocross fans of the world, who saw a stunning battle amongst the very top riders across the Atlantic divide in our sport.  Long may the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations continue to grow, as the madness returns to Ernée in 2026!