Lucas Coenen delivered a determined ride at the opening round of the 2026 MXGP World Championship in Argentina, overcoming a significant vision problem to claim 5th overall at the new Bariloche MX Race Track.
The MXGP season kicked off with the first of four flyaway events, launching the 19-round championship across 17 countries. Despite difficult circumstances on race day, the young Belgian showed impressive resilience to start his second term in the premier class with a strong result.
The Red Bull KTM rider posted consistent finishes of 4th and 6th across the two motos to secure 5th overall for the Grand Prix. The result marks a small but notable improvement on his debut MXGP appearance at the Argentine round in 2025, where he finished one position lower.
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However, the performance was made even more remarkable by the fact that Coenen was dealing with a serious issue affecting his vision.
After a solid Saturday that left him optimistic heading into the motos, the problem developed overnight and worsened as race day unfolded.
In the opening moto, Coenen was running close to the podium positions before a brief fall dropped him back to fourth. In the second race he focused on maintaining consistency, circulating within the top six as several riders matched each other’s pace lap after lap.
Given the circumstances, the Belgian opted to manage the race rather than take unnecessary risks, ensuring valuable points to start the championship.
Reflecting on the difficult weekend, Coenen explained just how challenging Sunday had been.
“Saturday was quite OK and I was looking forward to the motos but that evening I started to have a lot of problems with my eye and couldn’t see that well on Sunday. We tried some treatment…but it got worst while riding. It was like racing blind! I was just cruising to not make an extra mistake. We’ll get it sorted in time for Spain; otherwise, everything is going in a good way.”
With the opening round complete, the MXGP paddock now returns to Europe for round two of the championship. The series heads to southern Spain for the Grand Prix of Andalucia on March 21–22, where the Almonte circuit near Huelva will host its first ever MXGP event.
Images courtesy of KTM
