The Coenen wonder twins, Herlings let down by Honda: the two faces of the 2026 MX World Championship

Lucas and Sacha Coenen ruling the Motocross World Championship at the start of 2026, while Jeffrey Herlings has lived through a double technical nightmare...

Lucas and Sacha Coenen, sensational twins—KTM really nailed it! Meanwhile, record man Jeffrey Herlings has been let down twice by his Honda... The first part of the 2026 Motocross World Championship has these particular protagonists, two currently very different sides of off-road history. While the two unleashed Belgian brothers won the first GP together and reign across MXGP and MX2, technical troubles have struck the HRC Dutchman for two consecutive rounds. He boasts the incredible record of 115 GP wins but is now a full 62 points behind Lucas Coenen after 8 events. Would you have ever predicted that?

Next weekend brings their AMA Pro National Motocross debut, the new American challenge, but first let’s recap where these formidable youngsters stand in the World Championship. Sacha is the king of MX2 qualifying races, with the sole exception of the French GP, which went to home favorite Mathis Valin. Last weekend in Kegums, however, beyond taking pole, he delivered a 1-1 in the motos—something we hadn’t seen this year—brushing aside the competition with little trouble and locking down the red plate with a 37-point margin over reigning champion Simon Laengenfelder. In the same days, twin brother Lucas pulled off the very same feat in MXGP: qualifying win, triumph in both motos, and an even more solid hold on the overall lead. Back in Trentino the two fired-up twins had already taken pole positions together, but this time there’s also the historic GP double! The last time it happened was in 2007 at Faenza, when brothers Sebastien and Christophe Pourcel took the wins in MX1 and MX2 on the same day, July 15. The Coenen twins were only nine months old back then!

In just seven days, the Dutch ace had to deal with two hefty technical blows. At the German GP in Teutschenthal he ended up KO in Race 1, then managed to limit the damage in Race 2 with a solid 2nd place, though it only earned him 9th overall. It went even worse at Kegums: after finishing 3rd in Race 1, he and Febvre were closing in on a firmly leading Coenen when his CRF450RW suddenly cut out on the exit of a left-hander, forcing him to walk back to the pits for the second time in as many events. “I have no words for what happened in the last 7 days” was Jeffrey Herlings’ terse comment, posted on his social channels. That’s already a lot of points dropped, and with Lucas Coenen in this kind of form, the climb gets steep. The MX season is certainly very long, but a double DNF this early—and for technical issues—after a picture-perfect start to 2026 with Honda doesn’t help.

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