The FIM Motocross World championship headed to the iconic Uddevalla circuit for round sixteen of the season. As we edge closer towards the finale in Darwin, Australia, the pressure is ramping up at the summit of both the MXGP and MX2 championship.

MXGP:

A wild MXGP Race 1 saw Romain Febvre grab the holeshot ahead of Jeffrey Herlings, and the pair would exchange positions before Febvre established hold of the lead by lap two. Swede Isak Gifting rocketed out to an amazing start, applying pressure to Herlings for second before colliding with Tim Gajser – which ruled Gajser out for the rest of the race. This allowed Vlaanderen to move into third, and the top three would not change for the rest of the race. Jeremy Seewer crashed hard whilst in fourth, leaving him unable to continue. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Lucas Coenen endured a terrible start and battled his way through the pack to finish in seventh, a tough blow to his championship pursuit.

MXGP Race 2 was even more chaotic – Romain Febvre once again established his place at the front of the pack ahead of Herlings, Gajser and Gifting. A crash on lap eleven for Gajser saw him drop to seventh and allowed Gifting to move into third. Remarkably, the Swede chased down both Herlings and Febvre to move into the lead on the final lap, before a heartbreaking tip-over in a turn with just half a lap remaining saw the race win slip from his grasp. Renaux, Vlaanderen and Coldenhoff benefited from Gifting’s misfortune to round out the top five. Lucas Coenen had a disastrous day, seeing his championship deficit increase from 9 to 41. The fact that Coenen has finished on the podium every round since Switzerland makes the one-off day an even more bitter pill to swallow, as the hard work has been unraveled

MX2:

Sacha Coenen grabbed the Fox Holeshot and set sail for the opening portion of the race, stretching his lead to over 10 seconds by the halfway mark. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Andrea Adamo progressed from fourth to second and set his sights on catching the Belgian. Adamo reeled him in at an alarming rate and made his way into the lead with three laps remaining. After a so-so start, de Wolf began to pass his way through the field, and on the final lap passed his Nestaan Husqvarna teammate Liam Everts to finish in third. Championship points leader Simon Langenfelder found his flow late in the race and crossed the line in fifth, right behind the Husqvarna pair.

Race 2 saw Thibault Benistant lead the way from the start with Simon Langenfelder following behind in second. Langenfelder made his way into the lead on lap five and controlled the race from there on out to secure the overall victory, extending his points lead over Kay de Wolf, who notched a pair of third-place finishes to secure second overall. Race 1 winner Andrea Adamo didn’t get off to the best of starts and was left with the tough task of dicing through the field on a narrow racetrack. A crash on lap ten meant the Italian had to settle for eighth in the race and third overall on the day. Benistant rebounded from a tough first race, finishing in second. A small mistake from fellow countryman Mathis Valin allowed de Wolf to make his way through, pushing the Kawasaki rider back to his finishing position of fourth.