The shifting sands of the Motocenter Zelta Zirgs resounded with the rumbles of thunder last night, but thunder of a different kind reverberated around the Kegums venue today as the Qualifying Races saw the opening salvoes for the top riders at the MXGP of Latvia!
Round eight of the FIM Motocross World Championships is the last of a three-week run of events that have tested the riders thoroughly from one end of Europe to the next, and after two hardpack venues, this Baltic battleground provides a sandy surface with a hard base to reward any riders with all-round skills, and the track got drier through the day to make the ground even firmer by the time it came to the Qualifying Race for MX2 and MXGP.
The twin terrors, that are rampaging across the Motocross world right now for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, struck again with victories for both Lucas Coenen in MXGP and Sacha Coenen in MX2, the fifth time they have cleaned up in Qualifying, and the third time this year.
Lucas did the business after passing Kegums record win holder Jeffrey Herlings, who took second for Honda HRC Petronas ahead of fellow Dutchman Kay de Wolf, who continues to progress in his MXGP rookie season for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing.
Sacha also had to make a pass on a Honda HRC Petronas pilot who was fastest in Time Practice, this time in the shape of Valerio Lata, as the Italian scored his best Qualifying Race result of the season so far in second place. Reigning World Champion Simon Längenfelder took third for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, but lost ground to Coenen in the series, trailing the Belgian by five points heading into the GP tomorrow.
The big question for tomorrow is if the twins, that both hold the red plates in their respective Championships, are finally going to bring home the double GP win that everyone feels must be coming soon!
Main Photo: Lucas Coenen; Head Top Photo: MXGP Start Kegums 2026
The man with the most remarkable record at Kegums was eager to show that his pace has not lessened from his nine prior victories at this circuit. Jeffrey Herlings came in with a late effort in both Free and Time Practice sessions to top the tables both times for Honda HRC Petronas. He finished the session, that counted for gate pick, with a time just shy of four tenths of a second faster than fellow sand master Kay de Wolf. Championship leader Lucas Coenen took the third spot, while home hero Pauls Jonass excited his fans with fifth for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, just behind the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP machine of Tim Gajser.
Coenen pulled a classic Holeshot at the start of the Qualifying Race, as the Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team rider Calvin Vlaanderen picked up his bike from a first corner tangle! However, Herlings tucked inside turn one rapidly and powered past the teenager into the second corner to take command at Kegums as he has done so many times before!
De Wolf gave chase in third, ahead of the Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP team leader Romain Febvre, who has been a disappointed 11th in Time Practice but gated well in front of the second Honda HRC Petronas teamster Ruben Fernandez. Jonass held down sixth place ahead of the fast-starting Gabriel SS24 KTM of Oriol Oliver.
Maxime Renaux had not started well, and just like his Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP teammate Gajser he was outside of the top ten at the end of the first lap. He suffered a broken front wheel on landing from a jump and was sent spectacularly over the handlebars! Meanwhile, Gajser moved into the top ten between two Italians, Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team’s Andrea Bonacorsi in eighth and Fantic Factory Racing MXGP’s Alberto Forato in tenth.
Coenen seemed to be keeping Herlings just within reach, then on lap three he struck with an outside sweep around a right-hander that was as sudden as it was shockingly fast! The Belgian immediately put the hammer down to march away from the opposition. De Wolf was briefly troubled by Febvre but managed to pull a gap on the defending Champion. On lap five both Bonacorsi and Gajser moved up a place due to a mistake from Oliver. The Slovenian then passed the tall Italian on the way to the uphill triple jump to move into seventh, which is where he would finish.
Sadly for Bonacorsi, he then caught his foot on the take-off ramp of a corner jump at the end of lap nine, and crashed heavily out of the race. We hope he is healthy enough to take the start tomorrow.
This promoted Oliver to eighth, his first Qualifying Race points finish yet, with Andrea Adamo working up to ninth for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, and the remarkable Vlaanderen recovered strongly from his first corner crash to claim the final point for tenth!
There was no catching Coenen out front however, and he eased off in the final laps to bring it home from Herlings, De Wolf, Febvre, and Fernandez, who moves past stricken Honda HRC Petronas teammate Tom Vialle into seventh in the series. Local hero Jonass, in his first Latvian GP since 2022, scored his best Qualifying Race result of the 2026 season so far, moving himself past Forato into tenth in the Championship!
Coenen stretches his points advantage over Herlings to 32, and eyes up the chance to dethrone the King of Kegums in tomorrow’s GP! Will he succeed, or will “The Bullet” bite back in the Baltics? You need to be tuning in tomorrow to find out!
Lucas Coenen “Honestly, the start was good, but I was running too hard on the inside, and Jeffrey, like every year, he turns quite good on the inside, so he got me on that one. We were together, full pace in the beginning, but managed to take the pass over Jeffrey and just enjoy the riding out there. The track’s pretty sketchy, you know, it’s really hard underneath, so I hope tomorrow I can make some more lines to test. But yeah, it was good.”
Jeffrey Herlings “I made a slight mistake just before and I thought he was going to come inside but he came outside instead. Anyway, he was a bit faster than I was. I felt a bit slower the first 10-15 minutes but the last 10 minutes I kind of matched his speed. I don’t know if he was still pushing hard or whatever, but if you look at the gap compared to the other guys, we were still pushing in the end. Just need to work a bit overnight to see where we’re losing it and keep working for tomorrow. I have a good gate position next to my main rival so yeah, I’ll try to do the best tomorrow.”
Kay de Wolf “I was feeling quite good. I felt pretty good with the pace in the beginning, then Lucas went around Jeffrey. I tried a few laps to pass Jeffrey but I felt like I couldn’t really go around. I didn’t know Romain was still behind me, so he caught me a little bit off guard the last three laps, but just made it a small sprint for a lap and managed that gap. So yeah, I felt really good out on track and hopefully we can have a good day tomorrow.”
1. Jeffrey Herlings; 2. Kay de Wolf
MXGP – Qualifying Race Classification: 1. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 24:32.861; 2. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), +0:03.917; 3. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:14.861; 4. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:20.214; 5. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:32.329; 6. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), +0:38.622; 7. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), +0:41.441; 8. Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), +0:48.234; 9. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:49.741; 10. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Ducati), +0:59.942
MXGP – World Championship Classification: 1. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 354 points; 2. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, HON), 322 p.; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 270 p.; 4. Tim Gajser (SLO, YAM), 260 p.; 5. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 251 p.; 6. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 231 p.; 7. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 222 p.; 8. Tom Vialle (FRA, HON), 219 p.; 9. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 213 p.; 10. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KAW), 145 p.;
Sacha Coenen
It was no surprise to see the winner of the last two MX2 events here, Sacha Coenen, top the timings in Free Practice, but the big hope for home success, Janis Reisulis, declared his intent with second place for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2! Surprising everyone in Time Practice, however, was Honda HRC Petronas’ flying Italian Valerio Lata, who pitched in with a brilliant lap to take the first gate pick away from Coenen by nearly nine tenths of a second! Janis was still third ahead of the Triumph Factory Racing Team pairing Camden McLellan and Guillem Farres.
It was a different factory KTM than usual that led out of the first corner, as Simon Längenfelder celebrated with a fist-pump past Pit Lane, while Lata and Coenen followed in his wake! The Champ’s lead would not last long, however, as he got it wrong heading towards the uphill triple, which had nearly claimed him in Time Practice and was tough on a 250cc machine. He had to back off and only double it, allowing Lata to pass him into the following corner, and Coenen capitalised on the confusion to dart to the inside of the German and relegate him to third!
Frenchman Mathis Valin, winner of the German GP for Kawasaki Racing Team MX2, held fourth ahead of Janis Reisulis, Farres, and the Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing machine of Liam Everts. Privateers Kay Karssemakers for DRT Kawasaki, and Jens Walvoort of the SB Racing KTM Team, were inside the top ten ahead of McLellan at the end of the first full lap.
The South African fought forward rapidly from there at a position a lap until he caught his teammate Farres in sixth. Meanwhile, Janis Reisulis pressured Valin, but was unable to make a move and seemed to lose momentum. On lap eight McLellan finally made his way around Farres, then he passed the teenage Latvian, who had only just finished his final school exams on Friday morning, on the following lap!
Fifth was as high as McLellan would get to, while Liam, who had overtaken Farres for seventh on lap nine, battled with Janis over the last two laps, passing each other twice on the final lap! The Belgian won that scrap to take sixth ahead of “The Killer”, with Farres a disappointed eighth ahead of Karssemakers and Walvoort, the final points scorer today.
Lata led Coenen for most of the race, but the Belgian finally made the move in dramatic style with three laps to go, over-jumping at the end of the longest straight and saving what could have been a big crash whilst taking the lead at the same time! Lata’s second place was the best of his year so far, and it helped Coenen to pull out another two points from Längenfelder, who took third ahead of Valin.
Things are close between Everts and McLellan for fourth in the series, with just two points separating them, while Lata’s score helped him pull away from Karlis Reisulis, who finished 11th for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2. Karssemakers needs just seven points to move into the top ten in the series at the expense of the absent Osička KTM rider Julius Mikula.
So will it happen? Will all of those “Twins take both wins” headlines, that journalists have had ready for a year and a half, finally be used after tomorrow’s four Grand Prix races?! Many on track want to stop it from happening, but it could be inevitable! Join us and find out live tomorrow!
Sacha Coenen “It was a good one. I found the right moment, but I overjumped completely in the corner.., almost went on the ground! But overall a good one. Had the race win and yeah, really happy.”
1. Valerio Lata; 2. Simon Längenfelder
MX2 – Qualifying Race Classification: 1. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 25:12.939; 2. Valerio Lata (ITA, Honda), +0:06.768; 3. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:08.358; 4. Mathis Valin (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:10.151; 5. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:10.704; 6. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:20.471; 7. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:24.278; 8. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), +0:26.369; 9. Kay Karssemakers (NED, Kawasaki), +0:45.172; 10. Jens Walvoort (NED, KTM), +0:46.519; 11.
MX2 – World Championship Classification: 1. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 330 points; 2. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 325 p.; 3. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 304 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 286 p.; 5. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 284 p.; 6. Mathis Valin (FRA, KAW), 271 p.; 7. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 256 p.; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 198 p.; 9. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 188 p.; 10. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), 144 p.
All the photos from the MXGP of Latvia will be available HERE.
You can find the complete results HERE.
TIMETABLE
SUNDAY:
09:40 EMX125 Race 2, 10:25 MX2 Warm-up, 10:45 MXGP Warm-up, 11:30 EMX250 Race 2, 13:15 MX2 Race 1, 14:15 MXGP Race 1, 16:10 MX2 Race 2, 17:10 MXGP Race 2.
LINKS
