Victory in the MXGP of Trentino enabled Jeffrey Herlings to close to within four points of the red plate on Sunday, achieving his second round win of the 2026 season since joining Honda HRC Petronas. In this Debrief feature, the 31-year-old recalls his winning weekend.

Image: Supplied.

Rebounding for the overall

Everyone’s saying I did a good job… I think I did a bad job because for the speed I had, the results are really bad. I had the crash yesterday and a little mechanical issue, couldn’t get the bike started, unfortunately. It took me some time to get going, but then came from 25th to ninth, and I was quite fast. First moto, I came from about 15th to first, so I was really good. Second moto, again, from 10th to second and I closed up to Tim, but he had like the perfect lines and yeah – I almost went through all my tear-offs, passing the other guys, and I just couldn’t find a way. I felt like I could go past, but I just couldn’t find the spot. I was pushing and he was not making a mistake, so he did a he did a great job. So yeah, 1-2 on the day, I think we did a quite good thing for the championship, even though there are 14 rounds to go so it doesn’t make too much of a difference yet.

Racing forward


Actually, I just kept getting better and better. I just got in kind of a flow and it just kept getting better – I managed to get good lines because, you know, I was in traffic all the time, so I passed one after another, after another, and you started to pick up lines and see some spots. At one point, you know, I just had a really good flow. And a little bit the same on the second moto, but then once you get to the top four, it gets quite difficult to pass, especially when you have top riders as the guys next to me. You don’t pass them so easily, especially at a tiny track like this. I’ve got a quite good fitness, work out for that every single day… if I would ever have the starts of Tom [Vialle] or from [Jorge] Prado, I would have had so many more wins, but that’s the only negative thing what I can say about my career, like injuries and the starts have not always been so great. At least now I have a strong bike, so it’s not about the bike, and I need to make myself better.

Passing move

The second moto, they adjusted better and it was quite easy for others to do it as well, but the first moto, I passed a couple of guys just around the outside, outside, and then just double in front of them. I had to be creative and find a few lines, because it wasn’t easy. I did my best.

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Attraction of Trentino


For me, yeah, the atmosphere is good, but I’m just here for one reason – to ride. Honestly, that is what I like so much, like just the riding part and I don’t look too much about the other things around. I think it’s good to have it on the calendar and regarding your question about the track, I think it could have been prepped it a bit better and I think the rain really helped it. You know, like when you see everyone using the same line, you would like rebuild the lines people are not using. I think that could still be improved, obviously, the tracks are not as wide as in America, where there’s like 10 lines in the turn and it’s like 15 metres wide. Also I know it’s not the easiest place to work as a as a track builder, but there definitely could have been an improvement.

Mentality of a title

I just look at it like it’s an endurance race. We’re down to 57 motos and the thing is, you have to be there every time. I don’t want to be disrespectful to Romain [Febvre], but definitely Tim [Gajser] last year was leading the championship and also Lucas [Coenen] was faster, but Romain was the guy winning the championship because he was always there, always consistent – not the fastest, but that’s how Ryan Dungey has won many, many championships. And I feel like on my day I can still be the fastest, like today – I don’t want to be cocky, but I feel like I had the most speed. But also, there’s days like in Sardinia, where I’m okay to just go 2-2 and take a 44 points. Being there every weekend is the is the key.