Jeffrey Herlings continued his strong start to the 2026 MXGP World Championship, securing second overall at the MXGP of Andalucia with a consistent pair of second-place finishes in the deep sand of Almonte.
The Honda HRC PETRONAS rider once again demonstrated his strength on Sunday, delivering two composed motos to make it back-to-back podium appearances in the opening rounds of the season.
The weekend didn’t begin perfectly for the Dutchman, however, after a crash in Saturday’s qualifying race left him with a less-than-ideal gate position for Sunday’s races. Lining up from the outside, Herlings still managed to put himself in contention early, navigating his way through the first turns and quickly establishing himself inside the top five.
In race one, he wasted little time moving forward and soon locked into second place. Despite pushing to close the gap to the leader, he was unable to mount a serious challenge for the win but maintained a solid pace to secure a comfortable runner-up finish.
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Race two followed a similar pattern, with another strong start setting the foundation for a consistent ride. Once again, Herlings worked his way into second and controlled his position from there, unable to quite bridge the gap to the front but never coming under threat from behind.
The double second-place finishes ensured another podium result and kept him firmly in contention in the early championship standings, as he continues to adapt to life on the Honda machinery.
Reflecting on the weekend, Herlings said:
“The goal is to get podiums, and I’ve done that in Argentina and now here so I have to be happy with that. I need to improve my Saturday performances because I have dropped a lot of points there, but I’m in a good position and we still have 51 races to go, so there is plenty of racing left and in Argentina I was the best, and today I was second best. I was a little bit sore after the crash yesterday but no excuses, I rode as well as I could and I’m still in a good position so I want to keep it rolling.”
With two podiums from the opening two rounds, Herlings heads to Switzerland next with confidence building, as the series moves to Frauenfeld for round three of the championship.
Images Courtesy of HRC – Shotbybavo
