With the opening five rounds of MXGP 2026 complete, there are an assortment of storylines and narratives are emerging. In this edition of Countdown, MotoOnline details the trends that we’ve identified and will be closely following for the remainder of the championship.

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7. Rookie Kay de Wolf working his way to form:
The debut MXGP campaign of 21-year-old Kay de Wolf got off to a rocky start when he tore a ligament in his thumb just a week before the championship’s opener at the Bariloche, Argentina, circuit. The Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing rider was forced to sit the round out and undergo immediate surgery, recover the best he could, then line up behind the gates for Andalucia a fortnight later. The Spanish debut was a quiet yet consistent affair for the 2025 MX2 champion, as he posted 10-8 moto finishes for seventh overall. Since then, de Wolf has continued to steadily improve with each round as he finds his feet in the premier class – after a P4 round result at the Swiss GP, the Dutchman has landed on the podium at the back-to-back Italian rounds, including a P3 moto result in the brutally rough Sardegna sand. Even with the Argentina double-DNS, de Wolf’s trajectory has seen him jump to eighth in the standings, and he’s starting to establish himself as a capable frontrunner.

6. Tom Vialle’s fast-starting return:
After a successful three-year campaign in the US where he clinched back-to-back 250SX Supercross titles, Frenchman Tom Vialle is wasted little time finding his feet on his return to the MXGP circuit. Considering the long-time Red Bull KTM racer is on all-new machinery with the Honda HRC Petronas team and has stepped up to the MXGP division, Vialle’s enjoyed a promising start to the season. Argentina saw the 25-year-old burst from the blocks by winning the season-starting qualifying race, then going toe-to-toe with his team-mate Jeffrey Herlings on his way to P2 in the opening moto. Two rounds later, Vialle claimed a wire-to-wire moto win and his first overall at a chaotic Swiss GP. After enduring multiple crashes at Sardegna, Vialle bounced back to take a 3-6 result for P4 overall at Trentino. With just over a quarter of the championship already in the books, the two-time MX2 world champion is third in the MXGP points, with two MXGP legends – Tim Gajser and Romain Febvre – breathing down his neck.

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5. Rocky title defence for Romain Febvre:
Speaking of Febvre, Kawasaki Racing Team’s defending champion hasn’t had it easy over the opening five rounds of the 2026 season. It started well with three consecutive race podiums at Argentina and Spain, but a hard crash midway through the second moto at Andalucia saw him visit the medical centre for evaluation. Thankfully he was only banged-up, but the DNF proved costly with his main rivals – Lucas Coenen and Jeffrey Herlings – finishing first and second. Another early crash in the second moto at Trentino saw him having to scrap his way through the field to a frustrating P11 result. Having led most of the first moto before surrendering the lead to a rampant Herlings, the 24-year-old Frenchman finished the fifth round in P6. After a frenetic start, the series now heads into a welcome five-week break, which will give Febvre the perfect opportunity to reset before the battle recommences with a home race at Lacapelle Marival at the end of May.

4. MX2 podium contenders emerge:
There’s still a huge amount of racing still to come in 2026, but we’re already seeing a legitimate battle starting to brew behind front-running pair Simon Laengenfelder and Sacha Coenen. Just 19 points separate Monster Energy Triumph Racing duo Guillem Farres and Camden McLellan, with Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Liam Everts sandwiched between them. After winning the opening MX2 moto at the Spanish GP, local legend Farres looked good for a GP win, but a mechanical DNF put paid to those chances. However, his team-mate McLellan stepped up to finish 2-1 and claim his – and Triumph’s – first grand prix victory. Fortunes switched the next weekend when Farres won the second moto in Switzerland, while South African McLellan was one of several who suffered from a chain derailment and DNFed that same moto. As for Everts, he’s yet to claim a win, but scored overall podiums at Frauenfeld (3-2) and Sardegna (3-4). These three racers are regularly finding each other with some heated on-track battles, and we’re here for it!

3. Don’t count out Tim Gajser:
Having skipped across to Monster Energy Yamaha for 2026 after a remarkable 12-year, five-championship stint with Honda HRC, there were questions around how long it would take Tim Gajser to come to terms with the YZ450F and his new team. Meanwhile, Yamaha has experienced a winner’s circle drought: they haven’t won the rider’s championship since 2015 (with Febvre) nor the manufacturer’s title since 2022, and are hoping the Slovenian could turn their fortunes around. Looking at the big picture, it’s been a generally encouraging start for Gajser. The five-time world champion finished P4 overall at Argentina, then backed it up with two third-place GP results at Spain and Switzerland. A savage crash in the Sardegna sand saw him enter Trentino with some busted ribs, but Tiga gritted his teeth through the pain and fended off a late-charging Herlings to take the victory. It was Gajser’s first win since the same round in 2025, and Yamaha’s first MXGP victory in 13 months, potentially signalling a momentum shift in the class as the team and racer continue to gel. He’s now 33 points off the series’ lead and just seven markers behind Vialle.

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2. Sasha Coenen applying the pressure in MX2:
Since claiming the 2025 MX2 championship after a season-long arm-wrestle with Kay De Wolf, expectations are high that Simon Lāngenfelder can become the first racer to claim back-to-back 250 titles since 2019. The German has slid across from the Rome-based De Carli faction of the KTM stable to the Red Bull Factory Racing team, where he’s now team-mates with his biggest championship rival, Sacha Coenen. Lāngenfelder began his 2026 campaign with a hiss and a roar, clean-sweeping both MX2 motos at Argentina, then carrying on to an eight-race podium streak. On the other end of the spectrum, the Belgian sensation Coenen registered a 2-DNF at Argentina after crashing hard on the opening lap. He’s been in catch-up mode since, but Trentino proved to be a crucial turning point – the 19-year-old swept both motos to claim his first GP win of the year, while his rival stumbled. Lāngenfelder struggled with the wet conditions and could only muster P10 in the opening race, but rebounded for P3 in the race two. The change of fortunes saw the German’s championship lead slashed from 22 points to just three points, and the momentum swing Coenen’s way. Coenen can smell blood in the water and the question is now whether the 22-year-old Laengenfelder can regain control when the battle recommences in France next month.

1. Jeffrey Herlings tightens up title chase:
After 15 years with Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Jeffrey Herlings made a sensational switch to Honda HRC Petronas for 2026, effectively filling Gajser’s seat on the team. Any doubts as to how he’d find his new surroundings were emphatically shut down at Argentina’s opening round when the 31-year-old stormed to a 1-1 victory. But the honeymoon period was short-lived when 19-year-old Lucas Coenen, who’d finished fifth in Argentina, hit a whole new level in Spain. The talented teenager dominated the MXGP field and took the maximum 60 points (including the 10 points for the qualifying race) from the weekend. Since then, the young Belgian and The Bullet have effectively traded positions at the top of the moto leaderboard, and, uncannily, both DNF’d the same moto at Switzerland with chain derailments. Through it all, though, Coenen had built 14-point lead heading into round five. In a similar storyline to MX2, the Trentino GP saw the points gap between Coenen and Herlings shrink to four points. Coenen suffered multiple crashes around the picturesque circuit (including a late incident while leading moto two) to finish the day with 12-3 results. On the other hand, Herlings was in raging form, cutting through the pack to win the opening moto, then backing it up with a narrow P2 to take the overall victory. Coenen and Herlings are already starting to distance themselves from the rest of the field, and at this rate it’s entirely possible this title fight won’t be decided until Darwin’s final round.