MXGP of Sweden: Herlings Another 1-1-1 Weekend as Sacha Coenen Goes 1-1 for His First MX2 Overall Win Since June

MXGP

Keeping the pattern of putting his name at the top of every single session across the weekend, Jeffrey 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 Romain 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 Fox Holeshot Award of the season in race one, but the two Hondas of Herlings and Tom 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 ten.

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 Pauls 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 ten on the day with 11th overall.

At the front, Vialle took the Fox Holeshot Award, 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 teammate 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 Acerbis 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.  We all wish them both the very best in their recoveries.

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 “The Bullet”, 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." 

Romain Febvre: "It was a good GP overall and my race speed was okay. The first race was the tricky one: my start was not bad, but I touched with another rider in the first two turns and lost places, so I had to come back through the pack. Then I was stuck behind Andrea [Adamo] for a long time, I could not find a spot and only got him with two laps to go to finish fourth. The second race was much better. I almost got the holeshot, Jeffrey passed me on the first lap and I could ride my own pace, so to finish that close to him is a really good ride. I am happy to be back on the podium."

Tom Vialle: "I had a pretty good day. I was struggling a little bit yesterday in the qualifying race, we made some changes on the bike this morning and I felt a lot better straight away. The first race was frustrating because Pauls [Jonass] was riding really good and I was stuck behind him for 35 minutes without finding one spot on the track to pass. I had a better start in the second one but went a little too wide and lost a few positions, so I had to come back through again. The track was easy to make a mistake on, but I am happy to be on the podium."

MX2

Janis Reisulis showed his enjoyment of the Uddevalla circuit as he took the top time in Warm-Up for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2. Liam Everts was not far behind in second place, ahead of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Simon Längenfelder.

Sacha Coenen got back to his old tricks of rocketing to the Fox Holeshot Award, and held it well around the early corners from Everts and Janis Reisulis, while Camden McLellan got away well in fourth ahead of Längenfelder.  From an unfavourable gate pick, Camden’s Triumph Racing Factory Team stablemate Guillem Farres was outside of the top ten, with facial scarring from his heavy crash in Saturday’s Qualifying Race.  It would be a day of pain endurance for the Championship leader.

Dutchman Kay Karssemakers had enjoyed his career-best Qualifying Race for Dixon Racing Team Kawasaki, and he made a surprise pass on Längenfelder in the opening lap to hold fifth place from the defending Champion!  Behind them came Husqvarna Scandinavia’s Norwegian rider Pelle Gundersen and the Maddii Racing Honda ABF Italia of Maxime Grau, with Farres able to climb to ninth at the end of the first full lap, ahead of home hero Nike Korsbeck for Triumph Racing Nordics!

Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 rider Karlis Reisulis had tangled with the Honda HRC Petronas of Valerio Lata in the third corner, putting them to the back, while Julius Mikula pushed his Osička Racing KTM past Korsbeck.  Gundersen made a mistake on lap three to drop down the order, keeping the Swede inside the top ten until Karlis caught him on lap six.

Farres recovered well from a mistake in the same second corner which caught him out on Saturday, and got up to sixth with a pass on Karssemakers on lap nine, a lap after Längenfelder had passed the Kawasaki.  The Champ and the red plate holder stayed in those positions ‘til the flag, with Grau seventh, Mikula eighth, and Karssemakers dropping to ninth ahead of Karlis Reisulis.

McLellan made several attempts to get past Karlis’ younger brother, but until the Latvian ran wide on the first corner of lap 13, he wasn’t able to get the job done.  He needed no second invitation to capitalise on that mistake! The top four circulated within three seconds of each other at one point, but Coenen kept back a spirited charge from Everts, who set the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, making it a Belgian 1-2 ahead of McLellan and Janis Reisulis.  It was Sacha’s first race win since Latvia in June, and he was suitably pumped as he passed Pit Lane after taking the chequered flag!

The diminutive Belgian clearly fancied more of the same, and took another Fox Holeshot Award in race two, bringing his total to 13 for the year, eight clear of the next best in that table!  Längenfelder was right behind him on the first lap, and the German was expected to make a move after his Qualifying Race win and his previously perfect podium record at Uddevalla!  Everts, McLellan, and Mikula gave immediate chase, but Karssemakers passed Mikula into the second corner!

Everts did not want Sacha to get away from him again, and made an audacious sweeping move around the outside of turn five to take second from Längenfelder! Meanwhile, Farres was initially twelfth across the first timing beam, but made some inspired moves to get to sixth by the end of the first full lap!  Ahead of him was Janis Reisulis, as Mikula crashed down the order, and Karssemakers had made an optimistic passing attempt on McLellan which resulted in a dramatic crash over the handlebars!  The unfortunate Dutchman would then pull into Pit Lane with too much damage to either his bike or his body.

Farres was far from done, fighting through the pain to move inside Janis Reisulis for fifth on lap two. Lata and Karlis Reisulis ran seventh and eighth, while Noel Zanocz was ninth for Venrooy KTM Racing, ahead of local boy Korsbeck!  Both the Swede and the Hungarian would succumb to a late charge from Mikula, who got through to a fine ninth position by the flag, ahead of Zanocz, who held off Grau for tenth.  Ahead of them, Lata took eighth in the race to put himself tenth overall, behind Grau in ninth and Mikula eighth overall.

The Reisulis brothers would come home in sixth and seventh in race two, Janis in front of his older sibling, who took seventh overall.   The remarkable Farres made a sweeping pass around the outside of Längnfelder for fourth on lap three, sealing the deal with the Acerbis Fastest Lap of the day in MX2 on lap four! The positions would stay set from there as riders struggled for traction on the slick surface, and Längenfelder’s fifth put him between the Reisuli in sixth for the day, his first ever visit to Uddevalla that didn’t finish with a podium result.  Janis claimed fifth overall behind the dogged Farres, who nearly hunted down his teammate for third mid-race!

McLellan’s fourth podium in a row, and tenth in all, moved him to 16 points up on Längenfelder in the Championship, but 21 behind Sacha Coenen.  Again, Everts was frustrated in his efforts to pass his countryman finishing just under two and a half seconds behind Coenen, who simply would not buckle under pressure. It was his first ever podium in Sweden, and his eighth career GP victory!  It puts him right back in the Championship chase, nearly halving the gap to Farres from 47 points at the start of the weekend to just 24 now!

The show of bravery from Farres cannot be underestimated, but after being impaired by his injuries from the USA, Coenen looks back at full strength again, and with plenty of local support ready to get behind him at Arnhem, the MXGP of the Netherlands could give us a storming showdown between the two!  McLellan is likely to be strong in that sand as he was in Lommel, so the MX2 class should provide fireworks next weekend!

The crowds will gather for round 16 as we close off August’s GP action in some deep Dutch sand, so don’t forget to find a way to watch one of the most entertaining events of thee MXGP season!

Sacha Coenen: "I am really happy with this one. It has been a long time since I won a GP and it was not easy today, so it means a lot. I did what I needed to do in both races. Liam [Everts] was really strong behind me and pushing me the whole way, which was good for me, I was just trying to keep a small gap and I managed to do it. Two races out front made it a nice day. We have four GPs to go and I am just trying to have fun every weekend on the track and do my best, so I am looking forward to the next races."

Liam Everts: "I was there all weekend, I felt really strong and really good, and I just came up one second short. We were riding a high pace all weekend, but unfortunately for me Sacha did not make the mistake I was hoping for. I kept pushing until the end and ended up second in both races. It has been an up and down season, struggling with the bike and with myself, and with things happening outside of my control, but we made some changes on the bike and definitely improved this weekend. Now I am looking forward to Arnhem, the last sand race of the year, and I hope to make it a good one."

Camden McLellan: "It was not a bad weekend. Results wise I think there was a little bit more on the table in both races, but my riding was really good and that is the main thing. The races were pretty intense and the track was really flat and very difficult for passing. Sacha is known for his speed and Liam was very good today as well, so they were far ahead in the second race. I charged at the end but could not really do anything about it, which was a bit of a shame. Third is not too bad, some good championship points and good vibes, and this weekend shows it is not over until it is really over."