MX2

Afyonkarahisar (Türkiye), 5th September 2026 – The slick, hard pack surface of the Afyon Motor Sport Center saw two tough Qualifying Races today with sunshine and some medium strength winds drying the circuit out rapidly towards the end of the Saturday programme at the MXGP of Türkiye!

The MXGP Qualifying Race was kept close at the top for the entire race, but Jeffrey Herlings finally put a stunning pass on his Honda HRC Petronas teammate Tom Vialle to take the win away on the penultimate lap, while the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP machine of Tim Gajser was also close to the top in taking third place. The win puts “The Bullet” even closer to being able to clinch the World Championship in tomorrow’s opening MXGP race!

In MX2, Guillem Farres made a much earlier pass for the lead, and brought it home from there for his second Qualifying Race win for the Triumph Racing Factory Team, building his points advantage slightly over Sacha Coenen, who finished second for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing. Liam Everts continued his good run of form with third for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing.

The MX2 title battle continues to be close at the top, but Herlings could become World Champion for the first time in five years if he finishes ahead of Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Romain Febvre in race one tomorrow!

MXGP Start Afyonkarahisar 2026

Jeffrey Herlings continued to show his dominance of the MXGP field with the top time in both Free Practice and Time Practice sessions, but the lap for the first gate pick came right at the end of the session, just unseating Tim Gajser by seven tenths of a second. Romain Febvre was third quickest ahead of surprise packages Jeremy Seewer on the Venrooy Racing KTM, and Jan Pancar on his TEM JP253 Racing KTM.

However, from the sixth gate pick, Tom Vialle carved across the outside of Gajser, who had out-jumped Herlings out of the gate, although the series leader held a tight line to charge into the second corner third behind the Frenchman and the Slovenian, as Febvre and Seewer gave chase!

Seewer was quickly passed by sole Red Bull KTM Factory Racing warrior Andrea Adamo for fifth, and the third Honda HRC Petronas of Ruben Fernandez also got past the Swiss veteran. The Spaniard was able to pass the Italian on lap three for fifth.

Up front, Herlings sneaked to the inside of Gajser as they charged into the split lane section, grabbing third halfway around the opening lap! He soon caught up to Vialle, but the three-time MX2 winner here has remembered the perfect racing lines and was not making any mistakes for his Dutch teammate to pounce upon!

Further back, Pauls Jonass had run off-track to the outside of turn one, but fought through the pack well to claim ninth for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, while Alberto Forato took the final point in tenth on his return to action for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP.  They were both assisted by a big crash for Fernandez on lap ten, and the Spaniard rode off the circuit in pain.  We all hope he is healthy enough to compete tomorrow.

That promoted Adamo to fifth place, his best Qualifying Race result ever in Türkiye!  Pancar made a last lap pass to take sixth place from Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team rider Calvin Vlaanderen, with Seewer in eighth.

Herlings continued to press Vialle, and got close again with three laps to go. On the penultimate lap, after being thwarted in an outside passing attempt around a 90-degree left-hander, he made a cutting outside to inside move through a right-handed hairpin that snatched the lead away from his teammate! 

Gajser and Febvre were lurking, but they would finish third and fourth respectively, while Vialle attempted a last lap run to reclaim the lead, but Herlings was able to hold on by just over a second, making it five Qualifying Race wins in a row, and his 15th race win in succession! 

This leaves the points gap at the top at 146 points between Jeffrey and Romain, and if he is 145 ahead after race one tomorrow then he can be crowned World Champion for the sixth time! Finishing ahead of Febvre will be the goal for Herlings, although it’s likely that he will just want to keep his streak alive and win the title in style! 

Make sure you tune in tomorrow for just that little bit of Motocross history!

Jeffrey Herlings: “I had a quite okay start, it was a little bit off. I managed to pass Febvre in the first turn, also Tim Gajser somewhere in the first lap and I was stuck behind Tom. He was riding really good. He didn’t ride dirty, but he just had the perfect lines. He is my teammate also and I respect him, so I didn’t want to put any dirty moves. With two laps to go I had to do something, I didn’t touch him, but I had to go in a bit harder. Nice to sit on pole for tomorrow’s race, it’s an important race for me. Let’s go into tomorrow and do our best and work from there.”

Tom Vialle: “I felt good to be honest. Great start again and I think my pace was fine. It was tough, I mean Jeffrey, Tim and Romain behind me the whole moto. Unfortunately Jeffrey got me at two laps to go, so hopefully tomorrow I can handle him a little bit longer.”

Tim Gajser: “I felt the whole day quite good on the track. The track was starting to get quite hard now for qualifying race, but decent start and I was there. Then I was just a little bit too defensive on the first couple of laps, where Jeffrey passed me. Then I picked up the speed of him and Vialle. Pretty happy with the riding, but tomorrow is a new day!”

1. Tom Vialle; 2. Tim Gajser

MXGP - Qualifying Race Classification: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 25:10.790; 2. Tom Vialle (FRA, Honda), +0:01.046; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, Yamaha), +0:02.151; 4. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:05.181; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:32.721; 6. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), +0:34.506; 7. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, Ducati), +0:34.889; 8. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KTM), +0:39.045; 9. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), +0:40.082; 10. Alberto Forato (ITA, Fantic), +0:41.377

MXGP - World Championship Classification: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, HON), 805 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 659 p.; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, YAM), 619 p.; 4. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 566 p.; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 528 p.; 6. Tom Vialle (FRA, HON), 505 p.; 7. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 502 p.; 8. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 449 p.; 9. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 428 p.; 10. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KAW), 335 p.

Guillem Farres

Liam Everts was the fastest rider in Free Practice ahead of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing duo Simon Längenfelder and Sacha Coenen. Coenen took the first gate pick, however, with a time just a quarter of a second up from Triumph Factory Racing Team’s Camden McLellan. next came Everts and Längenfelder, with series leader Guillem Farres lining up in fifth.

Sacha used that inside gate to great effect with a trademark Holeshot, with Everts and Farres disputing second through the second corner, while Längenfelder had to deal with the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 rider Janis Reisulis in a battle for fourth. McLellan was behind Janis’ brother and teammate Karlis Reisulis, but pulled a nice outside to inside pass to get through to sixth, then took advantage of Janis running wide to take fifth down the next straight.

Farres had gone around the outside of Everts to claim that second place, and with a stunning turn of speed he chopped across the front of Coenen to lead halfway around the opening lap!

From there, all of the passing was being done further down the pack, as Scott Smulders enjoyed his first visit to Türkiye with tenth for SixtySeven Racing Team, having made a mid-race pass on the Venrooy Racing KTM of Noel Zanocz.  In the same spot on the track, the braking zone into the corner that leads back to the start straight, Maxime Grau passed Karlis Reisulis to claim a career-best Qualifying Race finish of seventh for

Maddi Racing Honda ABF Italia. Between those battles, Ošicka KTM MX Team rider Julius Mikula finished in ninth place.  Janis continued to pressure McLellan, who was unable to get past Längenfelder, dropping over nine seconds back from the defending Champion to finish fifth ahead of the younger Latvian brother.

The German had a lonely race to fourth, ten seconds back from Everts. The Belgian closed in on Coenen, but finished a second and a half back in third place.  The top two in the series took first and second, pulling them both away from McLellan, who is now 15 behind the KTM man.

Farres took just his second career Qualifying Race win, extending his Championship lead over Coenen to 26 points.  This battle for the MX2 title is likely to run and run, and for sure McLellan will need better starts tomorrow to keep himself relevant to that battle.

We should be in for an enthralling day of racing tomorrow in MX2, and the MXGP of Türkiye is likely to make a big difference to the title tussle between three riders who have never been in this territory before!

Guillem Farres: “I got a bad start, but I made magic on the first lap as always. I was controlling the race and feeling great, the bike’s awesome, the team has done an amazing job and let’s keep it that way!”

1. Sacha Coenen; 2. Liam Everts

MX2 - Qualifying Race Classification: 1. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), 25:20.146; 2. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:01.837; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:03.253; 4. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:14.215; 5. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:23.330; 6. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:24.413; 7. Maxime Grau (FRA, Honda), +0:46.806; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:49.086; 9. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), +0:59.204; 10. Scott Smulders (NED, Husqvarna), +1:05.348

MX2 - World Championship Classification: 1. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 759 points; 2. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 733 p.; 3. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 718 p.; 4. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 681 p.; 5. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 656 p.; 6. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 592 p.; 7. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 476 p.; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 414 p.; 9. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), 354 p.; 10. Mathis Valin (FRA, KAW), 352 p

All the photos from the MXGP of Türkiye 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

Infront Moto Racing

FIM

FIM Europe

The Dixon Racing Team heads into its thirteenth season with Kawasaki Motors Europe confident of yet more success after agreeing terms to continue with Dutch talent Kay Karssemakers and increased support from long-time partner SWP Concrete Solutions who step up as team title sponsor in 2027.

Karssemakers joined Steve Dixon's team midway through 2025 and the partnership has blossomed this year with a succession of top-ten results in the ultra-competitive FIM World MX2 Motocross Championship. The Dutch youngster is currently eleventh in the series standings with three rounds remaining and has every chance of moving into the top-ten by the end of the season as he has regularly shown top-five pace through the recent rounds of the series.
 
DRT has now been associated with Kawasaki Motors Europe in the motocross world championships for twelve years and both parties look forward confidently to further success together in 2027 and beyond. The impressive success of the relationship throughout this period is emphasised yet further as SWP Concrete Solutions, already a long-term partner, will step up next year as title sponsor of the team
 
Steve Dixon (DRT team owner): "This is brilliant news for all of us. We started together with Kay in 2025 with some support; we were impressed by his efforts and took him full-term this year. It's been an up-and-down season in some ways but Kay has been regularly in the top-ten and he deserves a good shot next year. We will have a good bike and good equipment and we're really happy with Kay; he works hard and all of the sponsors like him. He's been a really good ambassador for all of us. It's been hard against the factory teams but our target was to keep a level head and reach the end of the season with no injuries. All of the riders at the top are good and the pace is really high; you can be fast and still not win championships if you get hurt. Kay has shown he has the speed to race top-five and, with even more support from our title sponsor SWP Concrete and Kawasaki, we're looking forward to being up at the front in 2027. It's great to continue with Kawasaki again; this will be our thirteenth season together and it's been a successful relationship for both us. So now we can look forward to finishing out the season in style and then start testing for 2027."
 
Steve Guttridge (KME Race Planning Manager): "It’s great news that Kay has chosen to remain with Kawasaki next season and in doing so gets to see out his successful time spent in the MX2 class with us as part of our Team Green programme. Since joining the team, he’s developed himself as a true professional in all areas and is always fully committed to take the best from the KX250 in achieving regular top-ten results in the world championship!"
 
Kay Karssemakers: "I'm really happy to sign with Steve Dixon and Kawasaki again for 2027; everyone is in the right frame of mind and looking forward positively. I'm confident we can have a good season together in 2027; I trust in the team and Kawasaki and will give 110% this winter and next season, my final year in MX2, to repay their belief in me. I'm looking to finish these last three GPs on a high and then have a good winter with lots of testing. My thanks to Kawasaki, to Steve Dixon, to all of the sponsors and my trainer Willem for their support."

Jason Barrow (CEO, SWP Concrete Solutions): “SWP Concrete Solutions have been proud long-term sponsors of DRT Kawasaki for the past fifteen years, so stepping up to become title sponsor for the 2027 season is a really exciting move for us.
I’ve personally been a long-time friend of Steve’s and we’ve got huge respect for what he puts into this sport. The pressure he puts on himself to make this team succeed is something very few people could appreciate; he lives and breathes racing, and you can see just how much it means to him. We wanted to step up because we believe in Steve, we believe in Kay, and we believe in what DRT Kawasaki can achieve. Kay has serious talent, and he’s got the commitment and hunger to match it. With a full winter of development and the right support behind him, I genuinely believe we can come out of the gate in 2027 ready to fight at the front. For SWP Concrete, this isn’t just about putting our name on the bike. We want to be part of the journey, support the team properly and help give Steve and Kay every opportunity to challenge for the MX2 World Championship. We’re excited for 2027 — and we’re going into it with one goal; to fight at the front from the very first gate drop.”

Photo credit: Kawasaki

Afyonkarahisar (Türkiye) 4 September 2026 – The 2026 MXGP of Türkiye was officially launched on Friday evening, as a packed Motofest Stage brought together riders, team personnel, federation leaders and national and regional dignitaries for an Opening Ceremony that carried all the energy of the racing to come for the Round 17 of the FIM Motocross World Championship.

Welcome remarks were delivered by Mr. David Luongo, President and CEO of Infront Moto Racing, Mr. Antonio Alia Portela, President of the FIM Motocross Commission; Mr. Mehmet Sadık Vefa, President of the Turkish Motorcycle Federation; Mr. Ahmet Ali Temurci, Director General for International Organizations and Foreign Relations at the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Türkiye; Hon. Av. Burcu Köksal, Mayor of Afyonkarahisar; Mr. Mehmet Taytak and Mr. Hasan Arslan, Deputies for Afyonkarahisar; and Dr. Naci Aktaş, Governor of Afyonkarahisar.

Each speaker welcomed the FIM Motocross World Championship paddock to Afyonkarahisar and underlined the pride the region takes in hosting one of the most important rounds of the 2026 season, in front of a crowd whose noise and enthusiasm set the tone for the entire weekend.

     
1. David Luongo; 2. Antonio Alia Portela

Before and throughout the ceremony, riders, officials and team members were invited to discover Turkish delicacies and local specialities, with food and drink served on the Motofest site in a warm and typically Turkish display of hospitality that gave the evening its unmistakably local character.

Once the ceremonial speeches concluded, the riders were invited on stage for the official family photo. Among them were Honda HRC PETRONAS trio Jeffrey Herlings, Tom Vialle and Ruben Fernandez, Triumph Racing Factory Team pair Guillem Farres and Camden Mc Lellan, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing riders Andrea Adamo, Sacha Coenen and Simon Längenfelder, Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Liam Everts, Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 brothers Janis Reisulis and Karlis Reisulis, Fantic Factory Racing MXGP’s Jörgen Matthias Talviku, Team Honda Motoblouz SR Motul’s Kevin Horgmo, Venrooy KTM Racing’s Noel Zanocz and Venum BUD Racing Kawasaki’s Francisco Garcia.

With the photo taken and the stage lights still on, the MXGP of Türkiye was officially launched. Afyon now hosts what could prove to be one of the defining weekends of the 2026 season, with the MXGP World Championship title on the line for Herlings and the MX2 fight still very much alive between the leading contenders.

Racing gets underway on Saturday, with the MXGP, MX2, EMX250 and EMX125 fields all in action across the weekend.

LIVE TIMING – WEEKEND SCHEDULE

SATURDAY – September 5

SUNDAY – September 6

Catch all the racing LIVE on MXGP-TV! 

Saturday’s Time Practice (MXGP/MX2), the Qualifying Races (MXGP/MX2), and Races from all classes will be broadcasted LIVE on MXGP’s streaming service www.MXGP-TV.com, while results throughout the weekend will be available  HERE.

All the photos from the MXGP of Türkiye will be available HERE.

You can find the complete results HERE.

LINKS

Infront Moto Racing

FIM

FIM Europe

MXGP Türkiye