The following is a press release by Infront Racing:

LOMMEL (Flanders, Belgium), 2nd August 2026 – In front of an epic, record crowd of over 40,000 fans that packed around the Stedelijk Motocrossterrain Lommel circuit, the MXGP elite battled with one of the most physically demanding tracks on the planet under punishing hot sunshine, and put on a fantastic display of racing for the 14th round of the FIM Motocross World Championships, the MXGP of Flanders!

It was a case of the expected favourites delivering what was expected, and in MXGP that meant the Championship leader, Jeffrey Herlings, crushing all competition on his way to completing a second perfect weekend in a row for Honda HRC Petronas, tightening his grip on the series into a 104-point lead with five rounds to go! He also brought his record win tally up to an unbelievable 120 GP wins in the process!

Second place overall went to Kay de Wolf, the Dutchman having recently signed a contract extension for another three years with Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing! Tim Gajser enjoyed good starts and toughed it out to take third overall for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP.

In MX2, despite his red-plate-holding teammate being on a four-GP winning streak coming in, the favourite was undoubtably Triumph Racing Factory Team rider Camden McLellan, and the South African well and truly delivered to score his first ever 1-1-1 weekend for his second career GP win.  Championship leader Guillem Farres fought hard to make it the third 1-2 of the year for the Triumph Racing Factory Team, while defending World Champion Simon Längenfelder put in a solid day in the sand to take third overall for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing!

Every single rider out there today deserves immense congratulations for even taking on the challenge of “Lommelwood” in the hot summer sun and making it through the day. The atmosphere was fantastic and the fans well and truly made their presence felt!

True to form, Jeffrey Herlings was once again top of the timesheets in morning Warm-Up, a clear 3.6 seconds ahead of Tim Gajser and Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s #1 plate holder Romain Febvre. Andrea Bonacorsi showed some promise on his return to action for Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team, with fourth in the session ahead of the JK Racing Yamaha of Isak Gifting. 

Former red plate holder and Belgian hope Lucas Coenen had already withdrawn from the racing after Saturday’s Free Practice, and the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing ace will work on his health issues in the first weekend off since his crash in the USA, in an aim to be in action for the next round in Sweden. 

Meanwhile, running with the red plate this weekend, for the first time since the Saturday of the MXGP of Andalucia in March, Herlings blazed towards his fifth Fox Holeshot Award of the season to put all of his competitors at a disadvantage from the very start! Andrea Adamo was initially second for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, although he was instantly passed by Gajser into the third corner, and Kay de Wolf worked around the outside of the Italian to claim third before Pit Lane towards the end of the first full lap!

The second Honda HRC Petronas machine of Tom Vialle also fired past Adamo on the second lap, and Febvre was next along! Behind them was Vialle’s teammate Ruben Fernandez, the second Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP of Maxime Renaux, Gifting, and the KTM Kosak of Roan Van De Moosdijk.

With his typical lurid sand style, De Wolf skipped towards the rear wheel of Gajser, and a mistake by the Slovenian on lap three gave the Dutchman the chance to draw close, and launch into second place on the wall jump by Pit Lane!  Meanwhile, Febvre took until lap seven to make a move stick on Adamo for fifth, and Bonacorsi momentarily hit the top ten before a small mistake dropped him down the order. Gifting had passed Renaux for eighth on lap two, and former Lommel winner (and resident) Ben Watson would also dance past the Frenchman at half distance to take a brilliant ninth for Dirt Store Triumph Racing! Kevin Horgmo also moved into the top ten for Team Honda Motoblouz SR Motul.

Febvre took until lap 11 to get past Vialle for fourth, and although he got right up to the rear wheel of Gajser, he could not make that final pass to get into the top three.  Vialle took fifth as Adamo stayed ahead of Fernandez for sixth, helping him in his duel with the Spaniard for fifth in the series. Gifting took eighth, his best result since his return to action in the UK, ahead of Watson and Horgmo.

Herlings left the rest scratching their head with a winning margin of over 45 seconds, leaving everybody wishing him a poor start for race two! 

Those wishes were not granted, however, as he sand-surfed his way around the outside of Vialle to lead into turn two, even though the Frenchman claimed his seventh Fox Holeshot Award of the season to equal Lucas Coenen at the top of that table!

De Wolf was further back even than in race one, but Gajser and Febvre were closer and the pair nearly came to grief as they both tried to make a move on Vialle! Febvre it was who got past his countryman in the outcome of that tangle, then Gajser launched the factory Yamaha off the wall jump to take third!  De Wolf had recovered well to get to fifth by the end of the first full lap, ahead of Fernandez, Van de Moosdijk, Gifting, Renaux, and the Becker Racing KTM of Max Spies.  Adamo was swiftly past the German, but then suffered a typical sand crash with a front wheel washout, and Spies actually passed Renaux to sit in ninth by the end of lap four! 

Herlings was streaking ahead as De Wolf caught Gajser, and fought into third with a gap to bridge in order to reach Febvre in second. Adamo was also in good form after his crash, passing Spies and Renaux on lap six, then two laps later he toppled Gifting and Van de Moosdijk in consecutive circulations to reach seventh.  Only two more laps later he made an inside move on Fernandez, and looked set to stay there until the end.

By this time, Herlings begun to signal to Pit Lane that he was having issues, and his pitboard came out with the message of “No Clutch” in order to preserve the machine.  His teammate Vialle advanced on Gajser, passing him for fourth on lap 12 of the eventual 17. De Wolf never stopped charging, and advanced on Febvre with three laps to go. The Frenchman pushed on, but suffered a massive crash that sent him over the handlebars, and was clipped by De Wolf as the Dutchman was unable to avoid him!

Amazingly, the Champ remounted still in third, but with just a few corners to go his machine, possibly damaged in the heavy prang, stopped on the face of the jump.  He had lapped enough people to leave him in 13th position, those eight points enough to keep him in the top ten overall, ninth ahead of Horgmo, who ended race two in ninth position after another solid ride.

Spies was the last rider on the lead lap in 12th position, but Van de Moosdijk was promoted into the top ten by Febvre’s crash. One of the best charges of the race was by Watson, who got up to seventh at the flag ahead of Gifting, which is where the two men finished overall.  It was the Brit’s best overall result since May 2022 at Maggiora! The Swede’s finish was also his best since this round last year.

Adamo and Fernandez ended both race two, and the day overall, in fifth and sixth, while Vialle’s third wasn’t quite enough to get onto the podium.  That honour went to Gajser, his fifth podium of the year, with De Wolf a satisfied second. 

The problems for Herlings didn’t impact his speed, just maybe his mood as he took his 120th career victory, and a record fifth win at Lommel, in his stride.  Febvre moved past Coenen into second in the series, 104 points behind “The Bullet”.  The Dutchman is looking strong, but knows that nothing is decided yet.

The series switches back to a harder surface, the weekend after next, in Sweden at Uddevalla, where Febvre went 1-1-1 last year as Isak Gifting drove the fans wild!  Just what can this year bring for us? 

Jeffrey Herlings: "It was a great weekend, just like last week we were topping every session. Two good starts today, I led every lap, Race 1 especially was really enjoyable. I had a small issue in Race 2 so I had to manage my pace, but we kept the gap to around 15 seconds and I'm just happy to bring it home. I had a bit of a crash near the end so Kay got second, but I don't really know by how much I won in the end, I just did what I had to do to win. That's 60 points, massive for the championship. Now it's about staying sharp, we've got five more races to go and we need to work on the sand before Arnhem, but the team works extremely hard day in, day out."

Kay de Wolf: "I learned a lot this weekend. I followed Jeffrey for the first 12 to 15 minutes in Race 1, then let him go because I knew I needed the energy for Race 2. I went the wrong way this morning in the first race, it's something you learn from, and I'm happy it happened now rather than at Arnhem. That's the plan since I came back, to learn, and I did that again today. I'm on the box, which is what we hoped for. Coming back from the injury I still felt like I wasn't quite there physically. With another three weeks under my belt I think I can show some good things at Arnhem."

Tim Gajser: "It was a decent weekend, I won't hide it, I was struggling a bit with the setup. The track wasn't the easiest either. In the first race I had a nice flow and could follow Kay, the second one I actually felt worse after we made some changes. Overall we're still learning and getting better with the Yamaha, it's a different bike to what I'm used to, a bit heavier, so the settings have to adapt too. But it's always nice to finish on the podium here in Lommel, the toughest GP of the year."

Camden McLellan continued his domination of MX2 in morning Warm-Up with the top time, while Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2’s Janis Reisulis was next best. Former red plate holder Sacha Coenen was third fastest for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, ahead of Guillem Farres and the second Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 of Karlis Reisulis.

The crowd roared as home hero Liam Everts claimed his first Fox Holeshot Award of the year for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, and emerged in front after a brief dispute from the Maddii Racing Honda ABF Italia of Maxime Grau!  Coenen was hit by the KTM Kosak Racing machine of Valentin Kees on lap one, putting both riders onto the floor, the German clean out of the race!

Farres had gated well, but his teammate McLellan was outside the top ten through the first few sectors of the opening lap, so the Spaniard made all the progress he could to build an advantage, putting a clean pass on Everts for the lead halfway around the first full lap.  Janis Reisulis, Simon Längenfelder, and the Honda HRC Petronas of Valerio Lata all got past Grau, but the Frenchman wasn’t rolling over easy in his first GP at Lommel! McLellan ended the first full lap in ninth, behind the Dixon Racing Team Kawasaki of Kay Karssemakers and Karlis Reisulis, while the Young Motion Powered by Resa Husqvarna of Swede Alve Callemo was a surprise top ten runner!  He would continue to surprise all day long.

As Farres settled in at the front, his teammate’s progress was relentless, reaching fifth with a pass on Karlis by lap six.  He then made a rapid pass on Längenfelder for fourth, before passing both Janis and Everts to reach second by lap ten! The five second gap to Farres looked achievable!

Längenfelder tried to go with the South African, and made a sweet double pass on both Janis and Everts on lap ten!  The Belgian was suddenly fourth, but disaster struck and a technical issue put him out of the race, and snatched away any hope of a first home podium for the Husqvarna man. 

It took McLellan three laps to close in on Farres, but he was helped by a big mistake from the Spaniard, who ran off-track as Camden approached!  The pair nearly came to a complete halt together as Farres saved what could have been a massive crash through a left-right corner sequence, and the South African was able to lead from there.

Längenfelder took advantage of the confusion to take a good second place, with Farres settling for third. Karlis passed his brother for fourth with five laps to go, as Coenen staged a fine recovery to finish in sixth position.  Julius Mikula, in his last GP as a teenager for Osička KTM, claimed seventh ahead of the remarkable Callemo, Lata, and a charging Scott Smulders, who rounded out the top ten for SixtySeven Racing Husqvarna.

Sadly for the Dutchman, who was enjoying a good GP on return from a back injury, he got stuck on the gate as it dropped for race two, and this time it was Farres who claimed the Fox Holeshot Award for the fifth time this year! Längenfelder dived inside Everts to take second on turn three, with Coenen and Grau behind them. McLellan was at least inside the top ten this time, and fifth ahead of Grau by the end of the first full lap!

Janis Reisulis was seventh ahead of the Venrooy Racing KTM of Noel Zanocz, Karlis Reisulis, and Kees, although Karssemakers was also looking good until his bike stopped for the second time today! Callemo advanced well to finish tenth by the flag, enough for eighth overall, by far a career high for the young Swede, ahead of Zanocz, who was ninth in race two, and Lata. Mikula’s eighth in race two was enough for seventh overall, as he’s becoming a regular top ten man this season.

Sacha Coenen seemed to struggle with his rhythm to come home seventh in race two and sixth overall. Karlis was again the stronger Reisulis through the race, passing Everts on lap 12 to claim fourth in the race and fifth overall, directly ahead of his brother who went 5-6 on the day.

The podium men were a class above, however, and Längenfelder knew the charge from McLellan would be coming! He made a strong block pass on Farres to take the lead on lap seven, and the South African followed past his teammate a lap later!  The battle between the two who are fighting for third in the series raged for four laps, the German snatching the lead back on three occasions, until a final outside-to-inside switchback move sealed the deal for McLellan!  It was a stirring performance for just his second career GP win, and his first ever perfect weekend.  He will feel very confident about the forthcoming MXGP of Netherlands in three weeks’ time!

In the meantime, after a weekend off, the series resumes in Sweden, with Farres enjoying a 47-point margin over Sacha Coenen, while McLellan has closed to within 13 points of the Belgian, with Längenfelder only ten further back.  It promises to be a stunning last five rounds of this hectic Championship!

Uddevalla delivered one of the highlights of last year’s season, and none of us can wait for that one to get underway as we move headlong into the last two months of the season!  Join us there if you can!

Camden McLellan: "I don't know if I cracked the code, but  I was really just doing my thing like every weekend, it just worked out better this time. My starts were still way off, so there's still work to do there, but I felt very good on the bike and fitness-wise too. Lommel is a really difficult place to find a flow, and it was hot today on top of that. With ten minutes to go I was so jammed up with roost and dirt I had to basically throw up in my helmet and keep going, it wasn't easy. But I like that, it's a bit of character building."

Guillem Farrés: "It was a great weekend for me, I finally put together two solid starts after a tough one yesterday. I led a lot of laps and did my own race. Camden was really fast today, so in the second race I tried to learn from him and made a push at the end to hold second. I go race by race, I want to win every time I go out, but I also know Camden is strong, I train with him, so when I saw him going in the second race I settled for second, I think that was the right call. Good points for the championship again, and I'm happy to keep the podium streak going."

Simon Langenfelder: "The qualifying race, Race 1, was still quite nice to ride, I had a good flow and didn't use too much energy. The second race got hard toward the end, but I enjoyed it, you can really play with the track here. I got a bit lucky passing for the podium spot too, the guys ahead made mistakes on the inside and I rolled around the outside. It's a long race here, you can't be too tactical because you can gain a second or two a lap easily if you push."