2026 Motocross World Championship – Champions Decided
Herlings’ sixth championship – First for Farres and Triumph
The Motocross World Championship season turned out to be interesting and nuanced, even though Dutchman Jeffrey Herlings ultimately dominated the MXGP class overwhelmingly and secured his sixth career world championship. In the MX2 class, however, the championship was fought between two Triumph riders right up to the final race in Australia, where Spain’s Guillem Farres sealed the title. It was the first championship for Farres, as well as for Triumph.
Before the start of the World Championship season, there was a lot of interesting speculation, especially in the MXGP class. The series’ two top names, Jeffrey Herlings and Slovenia’s Tim Gajser, switched bike brands. Herlings had ridden for KTM for his entire career up to that point, a solid 15 years, and now he jumped onto a factory Honda. Herlings had already won five championships with KTM; would his career continue just as brilliantly with the Japanese giant’s team?
Gajser, for his part, moved from the long-standing Honda factory team to the Yamaha factory team after winning five championships on a Honda. The question was: how would the five-time world champions adapt to their new bikes and teams? Would either of them take a sixth championship?
Belgium’s young and extremely hungry Lucas Coenen continued in the KTM factory team and had already shown his danger in the 2025 season. And what would the 2025 world champion, France’s Romain Febvre, do? Febvre, riding for the Kawasaki factory team skippered by Antti Pyrhönen, is known as a consistently reliable rider, and that consistency is one of the key words in motocross championships.
When the season kicked off in March in Argentina, Herlings immediately dispelled any doubts by winning both heats. Herlings’ teammate, France’s Tom Vialle, who returned to the World Championship series with a bang from America, grabbed a point total equal to Herlings’ (50p). Febvre and Gajser were also well in the top five.
As the season progressed, Lucas Coenen began picking up wins alongside Herlings, and the season looked like it would become a battle between them, until Coenen was injured and his season was effectively over, even though he attempted a comeback in the Lommel race in August, only to injure himself again. Thus, Herlings, who had continued his dominance, was on his way to his sixth championship, which was secured in the third-to-last race in Turkey. Herlings’ superiority is well illustrated by the fact that he won all heats in the last eight races of the season (16 heat wins!). Throughout the season, he took a total of 22 heat wins. However, the champion’s tough series also included three zero-point heats.
Febvre continued his steady and reliable work until the end of the season and took the available World Championship silver, with which he was also satisfied, even though he lost to Herlings by 168 points. Gajser was ultimately third in the series, although he had to miss the last two races – China and Australia – due to injury. Vialle was fourth in points and Italy’s Andrea Adamo fifth.
In the MX2 class, Triumph had entered the World Championship series with a completely new bike for the 2023 season, and in the very next season, 2024, Denmark’s Mikkel Haarup steered the fresh British bike to fifth place in the final World Championship standings. That raised many eyebrows. Last season (2025), South Africa’s Camden McLellan steered Triumph to fifth in the World Championship series, which was already becoming a familiar position for Triumph riders! McLellan’s teammate, Spain’s Guillem Farres, was eighth in the final points. However, the new season brought a jackpot for Triumph.
From the very beginning of the season, it was clear that Farres, McLellan, and Lucas’s twin brother Sacha Coenen (KTM) would fight for the championship. Farres was able to do the most consistent and strongest work of them, and so 23-year-old Farres was crowned the new MX2 world champion. When teammate McLellan took the World Championship silver, the jackpot for Triumph was complete. Quite an achievement for the team; a championship brand in three years.
Sacha Coenen took the World Championship bronze, even though at some point in the season it looked like the Belgian would certainly fight for the championship. However, the results fluctuated quite a bit. Liam Everts, a third-generation GP winner from Belgium’s Everts motocross dynasty, was fourth in points, and the previous season’s champion, Germany’s Simon Längenfelder, was left in fifth place.