A sixth world championship has further cemented Jeffrey Herlings’ place among the sport’s all-time greats, with a commanding 1-1-1 performance in Turkey sealing his third-career MXGP crown with two rounds remaining. The title marks his first in the premier class since 2021 and comes during a remarkable first season with Honda HRC Petronas, while victory in Turkey also marked the 123rd GP win of his career. In this Debrief feature, 31-year-old Herlings reflects on adding another chapter to his decorated career.

Image: Supplied.

Sixth world championship

I’m really pleased about the weekend. You know, even though I had such a points gap, I was really stressed the last couple of weeks, the last practices. I knew the only thing that could possibly ruin my championship was injury. And I’ve shown I was quite fragile in the past in my career when I had crashes. So, I tried to be smart, but at the same time, I just kept going as hard as I could because I knew when I’m in front, I have less risk. So, yeah, it was definitely nerve-wracking. I’m going to be honest, I didn’t sleep much last night. I think I got three hours in. I was just, like, all kinds of scenarios – if this, if that – and just trying to, you know, not crash. And actually, from all the scenarios I had in my head, I never guessed I was going to take two holeshots and lead every single lap. So, no, I’m very pleased with it. It’s six world championships, my 123rd GP win, 11 of the year with Honda HRC Petronas.

Managing the nerves

Yeah, I think that’s what some champions can do. I mean, I hate being cocky or arrogant, that’s totally not my thing, but I think once you’ve won a couple of championships, at the moment when you have to pull it off, you’re able to pull that switch and send it when you have to, and just don’t let the nerves, you know, take over. Because on days like today, I had all my family here, all my friends, all my sponsors, basically. Even very high-achieving Honda HRC, Mr. Honda, was here for the championship. So, yeah, even though there’s not that much public at this race, I had quite some pressure, and I just wanted to do good for everyone and let them have a good weekend with me winning. So, no, I’m very pleased with it. And, yeah, obviously I don’t really have time to take time off because – cheers – I’ll be back at the practice track because we’ve still got a couple of races to go. But we keep going till the end. I mean, the season, even though I won the championship, isn’t over, and, yeah, I just keep trying to now get the record higher and higher from the GP wins and moto wins and whatsoever. So, we keep going. I mean, the competition is still strong. Yes, there’s some guys injured, but you saw, like Tom [Vialle] today, that we were gone the second moto. We had, like, a massive gap, and you see every weekend someone – like last weekend Kay [de Wolf], this weekend Tom – every weekend, it’s never easy to win.

Image: Supplied.

Keeping the win streak alive

Well, I just hate losing – that’s the first thing. I would definitely not enjoy this evening if I didn’t. Even though I’m already thinking about next weekend, like, I’m going to go to bed early because I want to win again next weekend. But at the same time, I can definitely not enjoy tonight if I didn’t win that second moto. Also, I’ve never – with the six championships I’ve won – every time I’ve won the moto and the championship at the same time. I hate coming in [around] P15 and then winning a championship. That’s not how you should win a championship, I think. So yeah, pleased with that.

Potential of running the number one

Oh, that’s a good question. I mean, it’s always nice, but I hate arrogance. Like, I was the same when I was 18 to maybe till my 25 – I had a big mouth and a lot of arrogance. But now I think I’ve changed a lot. Running number one, it has – like Romain [Febvre] is definitely not an arrogant person, 100 percent not – but like, I’d say, if somebody wants to shoot a bullet, the number one is the target. You know, everyone wants that thing. I don’t know, I’ve done it once, actually, at the first photo shoot with Tom, and that was it. One photo shoot only with the number one. So, I don’t know. We’re going to speak with the team, but yeah – my heart is 84.