Round one of the 2026 MXGP World Championship featured a range of intriguing storylines as the gates dropped in Argentina, underscored by both Jeffrey Herlings and Simon Laengenfelder’s 1-1 results to start the year. In this edition of Q&A, MotoOnline answers key questions from the season-opening round.

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Q: Are Jeffrey Herlings and Tom Vialle the class of the field already?

A: After round one, you could certainly make that case! Vialle claimed victory in Saturday’s qualification race and earned the 10 world championship points that come with that – alongside P3 overall for the grand prix – while Herlings earned double moto wins on Sunday for a perfect 1-1 scorecard. So, reflecting on round one, Honda HRC Petronas won everything in the MXGP division with their two new recruits, as each rider takes 50 points into Spain’s second round later this month. Bariloche was an exceptional start, with the potential of each rider already evident in 2026. They are on an all-new factory CRF450R this year, which could throw some curveballs on different surfaces throughout the season, but there were no such problems at round one.

Q: Is Simon Laengenfelder’s 1-1 performance a sign of what’s to come?

A: It’s looking like that outcome is likely, because, as highlighted leading into the season-opener, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Laendenfelder is without his two title combatants from 2025, as Kay de Wolf and Andrea Adamo graduated to the premier 450 class. There is a range of capable contenders in the MX2 category who you’d think will give him a run, although it’d be remiss not to acknowledge that things may be slightly more straightforward this year with the main competition no longer present. The only misstep in his Argentine weekend was a finish outside the points in the qualifying race, where fellow factory KTM rider Sacha Coenen earned victory, although even factoring that result in, he still leaves round one with a three-point margin in the series standings.

Q: What can be said about Lucas Coenen’s top-five result?

A: Not a great deal, as it’s a fairly quiet result for such a dynamic young rider, but at the same time, leaving round one with solid points is the highest priority. That’s why a 4-6 moto scorecard works, as it’s a place that the Belgian teenager can build from as the 19-round championship progresses. The second season – especially off the back of such a promising debut – is always interesting, because riders go from a no-pressure environment, with not many expecting Lucas to perform to the level he did last year, to there now being an expectation at the very least to match his title-contending form of 2025. That’s the very least, with his and the team’s goal likely to walk away from this year as a champion, so what will be interesting to follow is if this added pressure helps him raise the bar even further, or if the weight from the pressure becomes a burden too heavy to hold.

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Q: Does Romain Febvre get the tick of approval with a podium?

A: This is another performance that is quietly solid, following the ethos of scoring a strong haul of points at round one. Defending MXGP champion Febvre’s third place absolutely gets the tick of approval, with 3-2 scores suggesting he’s ready and well-prepared to hold onto the number one plate in 2026. Those individual grand prix results combined with P5 in qualifying see him just two points from the championship lead, with the Frenchman directly in the fight in chasing his third premier class world title. There’s a lot of upheaval elsewhere on the grid – as we have covered – however, Febvre and Kawasaki will look to maintain continuity in this year’s series, the pairing entering their seventh season together.

Q: Are Triumph Factory Racing’s Guillem Farres and Camden McLellan legitimate title contenders?

A: Both Triumph Factory Racing MX2 riders, McLellan and Farres, claimed P2 and P3 respectively in Argentina, which is a big moment for the British marque in continuing their progression in professional off-road racing. They each recorded top 10 results in last year’s standings – McLellan leading the charge with a P5 overall – and will likely benefit from the exit of the likes of Adamo and de Wolf. That’s not to discount their performance, but it speaks somewhat to their double podium results, and now it’ll be whether this form can be sustained across the entire championship to give someone like Langenfelder a genuine challenge. So, are they legitimate title threats? It’s possible, but we’ll need to see how they fare across the next handful of rounds before confirming them to that category.

Q: Should we have expected more from Tim Gajser on debut at Yamaha?

A: The short answer is no, because P4 overall is also not a bad way to start a brand new partnership, as well as a new season. Add in a third-place ride in the second MXGP moto, and what we can see is that both speed and consistency are there from Tiga from the outset. Would he and the team have liked to post a 1-1 ride, as Herlings did at the head of the field? For sure. But only one rider can achieve that on any given weekend, and that wasn’t on the cards for Gajser. If anything, the Slovenian should be counting his lucky stars that he wasn’t injured in a frightening collision with a lapped rider on Saturday, with the five-time world champion instead making improvements each time he was on the track. We can be satisfied with Gajser’s Argentine result, as everything was displayed to suggest that he and the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP team will be in the title-race.

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Q: How would we rate Ducati’s start to the new season across MXGP and MX2?

A: Across the board, it fell slightly short of expectations. Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP team’s Calvin Vlaanderen led the way in the premier division, capturing 11th in his world championship debut with the storied Italian manufacturer, which is off-pace from where he’d typically be. The same goes for teammate Jeremy Seewer, who claimed a 17th-place finish, while Andrea Bonacorsi didn’t finish either moto after a heavy fall in race one. It was a tough outing for the MXGP team, and an event they’d be prepared to put in the rear view entering round two. As for the Beddini Racing Ducati Factory MX2 Team, they were without their MX2 signing Ferruccio Zanchi, thanks to a practice crash leading into round one, which prompted the team to draft in Simone Mancini, who made his MX2 world championship debut in Argentina. He recorded 18th in qualifying, followed by 13th in race one, and P20 in race two, placing him 17th in the overall rankings. Half the battle for the new program, bike, and rider is logging finishes, which Mancini and his Demo250 MX did in Bariloche, with the pairing now having some data and confidence to build from over the next rounds.

Q: Were there any additional standout performances from Argentina?

A: The added standouts would have to be the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP riders Janis and Karlis Reisulis, who recorded P5 and P7 results in the MX2 division, respectively. They’re encouraging finishes for the young Latvian brothers to start the season, and mapping their progression will be something to look out for this season. There is also a bit of hype around 19-year-old Mathis Valin, who posted fifth overall as part of the factory Kawasaki MX2 effort, with the 2024 EMX250 Champion another rider to keep an eye on, as he may represent the new wave of French motocross talent. In the MXGP class, it was more a case of performances that stood out, which were below expectation, as last year’s opening round winner Maxime Renaux claimed seventh overall, while, as mentioned, Seewer was a lowly 17th for the Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP team. Both riders will target a rebound at round two, with both expected to be towards the head of the field.