Herlings Aces
Argentina
MXGP Opener
T
he 2026 FIM World Moto-
cross Championship got un-
derway at Bariloche MX for the
YPF MXGP of Argentina, March
7-8, and two veterans came out
on top with Jeffrey Herlings and
Simon Laengenfelder sweeping
their respective classes.
MXGP
Herlings' debut with the
Honda HRC Petronas team
didn't start out very promising.
The Dutch rider crashed during
Saturday's qualifying race, but he
rebounded nicely with a holeshot
in Sunday's first moto. Herlings
battled with his new Honda
teammate, Tom Vialle, as the
two broke away from the rest
of the field. With three laps to
go, Herlings retaliated and stole
back the top spot before taking
the checkers.
Race two required more effort
from the number 84, as a mid-
pack start forced him to chase
down the early leaders. His
increased pace allowed him to
make quick work of the podium
contenders and saw defending
champion Romain Febvre's lead
dwindle away from what was six
seconds. With two laps to go,
Herlings struck to the inside and
squared up the reigning number
one. He held the lead through to
the checkers and made it a 1-1
sweep to start the season. The
win marks "The Bullett's" 113th
career success.
"Yesterday didn't go as
planned, because I crashed in
qualifying and had a small bike
issue after that," Herlings said.
"Today was much better. In the
first race, I took the holeshot and
tried to follow Tom's lines before
making the pass near the end.
The second race was a bit cha-
otic with the restart, and I had
to come from around 10th, but
I managed to close the gap and
pass Romain with a few laps to
go. Going 1-1 on my first outing
with Honda HRC Petronas is
amazing."
Febvre kicked off his cham
-
pionship defense with second
overall. The Kawasaki rider
finished third in race one but
bounced back to lead most of
race two before finishing second
WIND
IN THE
P28
2026 MX2 & MXGP of Argentina Video Highlights
The MXGP season got
underway in Argentina,
and Jeffrey Herlings
made his Honda debut
with a 1-1 sweep.
