Ernee
Herlings leads Netherlands to the podium at the 2026 Motocross of Nations
Honda HRC PETRONAS rider Jeffrey Herlings continued his amazing winning streak by going one-one at the 2026 Motocross of Nations, and leading the Netherlands to a third place on the podium in front of a crazy French crowd in Ernee.
Racing in the Open class, Herlings won the qualification race yesterday to help them to sixth gate-pick, but as this is a team event, he allowed his teammates to the inside pick and he lined up with 26th pick instead. In race one, this didn’t stop him from ripping around the first turn, just missing out on the holeshot to fellow Honda HRC PETRONAS rider Tom Vialle. The duo lead for the first half of the race before Vialle took a nasty tumble on a jump and had to pull off the racetrack.
That left Herlings up front and like he has done in the last eight races of the world championships, he dominated, pulling out a 35 second lead by the time he received the chequered flag. The aim was to do the same again, but this time the outside gate didn’t work out in his favour. Buried just inside the top 10, he made a number of quick passes, but as he looked to moved into third, he made a mistake a dropped all the way back to eighth with a 15 second deficit to makeup.
At one lapping four seconds quicker than his rivals, he got into the lead with still over 10 minutes remaining, giving him enough time to pullout 12 seconds on the rest of the field, and really stamp his authority on the race and prove once again that he is the best motocross in the world.
Unfortunately for Vialle, the injuries sustained in that crash were too much for him to be able to complete the last moto, which was a shame for him, the French team and the approximate 50,000 French fans who swarmed this Ernee circuit.
For Herlings, his Open class victory was his sixth class win at the Nations, tying him all-time and giving him yet another spot in the history books, after what has been an incredible debut campaign for the Honda HRC PETRONAS team.
Race 1 – MXGP and MX2
1. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), 35:15.189; 2. Jorge Prado (ESP, KTM), +0:09.830; 3. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:16.389; 4. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), +0:27.358; 5. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), +0:33.338; 6. Alberto Forato (ITA, Fantic), +0:35.212; 7. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:42.267; 8. Jorgen-Matthias Talviku (EST, Fantic), +0:45.663; 9. Roan Van De Moosdijk (NED, KTM), +1:09.544; 10. Julien Beaumer (USA, KTM), +1:13.310;
Race 2 – MX2 and Open
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 35:23.925; 2. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), +0:35.882; 3. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), +0:37.080; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:37.456; 5. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), +0:51.889; 6. Cooper Webb (USA, Husqvarna), +0:53.040; 7. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +1:01.419; 8. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +1:08.838; 9. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, Yamaha), +1:15.954; 10. Ben Watson (GBR, Triumph), +1:17.630;
Race 3 – MXGP and Open
1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, Honda), 35:15.127; 2. Jorge Prado (ESP, KTM), +0:12.035; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:18.557; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:24.337; 5. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:31.256; 6. Cooper Webb (USA, Husqvarna), +0:35.428; 7. Jan Pancar (SLO, KTM), +0:47.080; 8. Pauls Jonass (LAT, Kawasaki), +0:54.800; 9. Ben Watson (GBR, Triumph), +1:05.836; 10. Jed Beaton (AUS, Yamaha), +1:11.065;
Nations Classification
1. Belgium 23pts; 2. Spain 26pts; 3. Netherlands 34pts; 4. Latvia 52pts; 5. USA 53pts; 6. Italy 69pts; 7. Great Britain 82pts; 8. Switzerland 82pts 9. Australia 87pts; 10. France 90pts;
Tom Vialle 16 Honda HRC PETRONAS
Definitely not how I wanted today to go. The whole team felt really good after yesterday, and it was awesome to race in front of so many French fans, and the atmosphere was just amazing. However, sometimes things just don’t go your way and today, it seemed like all of the bad luck happened. I got the holeshot in my race and was leading early on, before coming over the jump I had to bail off the bike. Thankfully I was pretty much okay, but while I tried to race in the last race, I wasn’t feeling right and had to withdraw. Not how I wanted it to go but this is motocross. Thank you to all the fans for their support!
Jeffrey Herlings 84 Honda HRC PETRONAS
I definitely didn’t make things easy for myself in that last moto. I think I was like 15 seconds down after the crash, but I knew I had the speed and the time to do it, so I went to work. In the end I was able to make the move just past the halfway mark of the moto and pulled out a good gap to win. The first race was a lot easier and overall it was a good weekend and we continued the winning streak in Sunday motos all the way from the MXGP of Great Britain through today. The podium was always the goal for the Netherlands and we made that happen to, so happy with everything and a good way to round off this GP season.
Marcus Pereira de Freitas - Honda HRC PETRONAS
Motocross can be such a brutal sport sometimes, and we definitely feel for Tom, who wanted to win for team France so much. He put everything into this weekend and it is such a shame, that wasn’t able to make it happen. On the flipside, Jeffrey showed his speed once again, the first race was typical Jeffrey with a good start and leading almost the whole race. Then in the last race he made a small mistake and then went on a charge from P8 to first, posting laptimes much faster than anyone else. A great way to end the season for him and for the team, who have worked so hard all year long.
