WMX

MONACO (Principality of Monaco) 16 September 2025 – The final round of the 2025 FIM Motocross World Championships is coming on 20th and 21st of September in Darwin at Hidden Valley Raceway which marks the return on the Australian soil for the first time since 24 years! All MXGP, MX2 and WMX World Champions will be crowned this weekend in Northen Territory!

Checkout the Timetable and Entry Lists for the MXGP of Australia presented by Sitzler below:

TIMETABLE

MXGP ENTRY LIST

MX2 ENTRY LIST

WMX ENTRY LIST

A little-known statistic, although hardly surprising if you consider the 68-year history of Motocross World Championship, is that Belgium has won by far the most world titles and Grand Prix victories of any nation, weighing in with 591 victories, at the time of writing, through a bumper crop of 40 winners, since the first World Championship season begin in 1957.

As with Great Britain and Sweden, Belgium was helped by having a few manufacturers, in their case FN and Sarolea, who were able to supply their riders with decent machinery in the 1950s, although that wasn’t the case as the 1960s began and the sport started to see much more specialised off-road motorcycles.

It took until 1977 for France to celebrate their first GP winner, but since then “La Marseillaise” has rung out for 35 different riders, taking 289 GP wins between them, to sit second all-time in GP wins.

However, this post is all about the two nations who now sit in equal third place in the all-time lists.  With Jeffrey Herlings and Kay de Wolf adding 10 GP wins between them, The Netherlands have now jumped up to 236 all-time victories, tying with Italy on that tally despite Andrea Adamo adding four of his own for the Latin legends.  Italy have had their wins from 22 riders compared to 19 for the Dutch.

Stereotypically specialising in one form of circuit or another, sand of course for the Dutch and hardpack for the Italians, they have both had recent Motocross titans that have cleaned up on all surfaces, to the point where Sicilian master Antonio Cairoli actually claims to prefer the softer circuits!  Herlings, and more recently De Wolf, are known to be just as much of a threat when there aren’t big sandy waves to contend with, but for sure they are both near unbeatable in their native domain.

The two big hitters of Cairoli and Herlings, who account for 40% (TC) and 47% (JH) of their nation’s tallies, have seen these two countries surpass the totals from the two original big hitters of Sweden (195 from 21 riders), and Great Britain (153 from 29 riders), both of whom have had minimal success in the 21^st century, where of course there have been a few more chances to build up the numbers.  Although we now have two classes, accounting for around 40 GPs per year, whereas in the 1980s & 90s there were three classes which raced around a dozen times a year. 

These numbers, by the way, are purely in the traditional world of men’s Motocross.  If you add WMX into the equation, then it’s looking better for the Latinos with Kiara Fontanesi alone leading the way all-time with 24 wins, although she is the only Italian lady in that list. The Dutch have won 15 with four women, led by 6 for Nancy van de Ven and 5 for Lotte van Drunen.

From here, while both Italy and the Netherlands have promising riders in the wings, you have to say that the immediate prospects are stronger for the Dutch, with Herlings far from finished, and De Wolf maybe only just getting started.  Although Adamo could add to his tally on any given weekend, and the likes of Andrea Bonacorsi and Valerio Lata seem to be on the cusp of breaking into the ranks of the GP winners.

In the meantime though, let’s take a snapshot to see the breakdown of all of those Grand Prix winners.

Italy:

Netherlands

Full Table

Looking for your country?  Here they are then…

AFYON (Turkiye) 7 September 2025 – The penultimate round of the 2025 FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship in Afyon promised to be a huge decider in the title chase, with everything still to play for before the grand finale in Australia. Just 20 points separated red plate holder De Baets MX-Yamaha Team's Lotte van Drunen from the resurgent RFME Spain National Team's Daniela Guillén, while MX FontaRacing's Kiara Fontanesi remained firmly in contention, sitting only a single point behind the Spaniard. With the stakes so high and the pressure mounting, the Turkish round was set to shape the destiny of this thrilling championship battle.

The WMX served up plenty of performance in Race 1 at the MXGP of Türkiye. Martine Hughes got the jump out of the gate on her Kawasaki and briefly led the opening lap after capitalising on a small mistake from Fontanesi. But it didn’t take long for the championship contenders to make their presence felt, with Guillén and Fontanesi both charging past Hughes, while red plate holder van Drunen quickly slotted into third.

With the top three separated by only 20 points in the standings coming into Afyon, the tension was high. Fontanesi took over the lead early on, but Guillén refused to let her go, probing lap after lap with aggressive moves down the inside. On lap five, the Spaniard finally made her pass stick, pulling away steadily as Fontanesi lost ground before regrouping to maintain second. Van Drunen kept her composure to finish third, limiting the damage in the championship battle.

Behind the leading trio, Hughes held on for fourth ahead of Amandine Verstappen in fifth, while Lucy Barker, Team Honda Motoblouz SR's April Franzoni and SYE Racing Team 423's Larissa Papenmeier completed the next group of riders. KL Racing Team's Malou Jakobsen and Shana van der Vlist rounded out the top ten.

At the flag, it was Guillén who celebrated her third race victory of the season, crossing the line five seconds clear of Fontanesi, with Van Drunen securing third to keep her championship lead cushion still manageable

Race 2 produced another thrilling showdown. Papenmeier made the best jump out of the gate, but it was Fontanesi who quickly asserted herself at the front, taking the lead after a couple of turns. Guillén started further back in fifth and had to push hard through the first lap, climbing into third position in quick succession. Meanwhile, red plate holder van Drunen was caught in the chaos of the first corners and found herself outside the top ten, leaving her with a big effort to produce to climb up the ranks.

Fontanesi set a fast pace at the head of the field, building a cushion over Papenmeier while Guillén started to reel back the german. By lap five the Spaniard had moved past Papenmeier to go second, opening the door for a head-to-head with Fontanesi that would decide not only the race but the overall classification. Behind them, Martine Hughes was enjoying one of her strongest rides in recent years, running solidly in third and on course for a first podium since 2022.

While Fontanesi maintained the lead, Guillén was the quickest rider on track, cutting the gap down to just a couple of seconds in the closing stages. Van Drunen, after a nervous moment where she almost lost control in a corner, regrouped to fight her way through the field, eventually salvaging fourth place to minimise the cost in the championship.

At the checkered flag, Fontanesi crossed the line first after a stella last lap which was the fastest of the race to take the Race 2 win ahead of Guillén, with Hughes securing a strong third-place finish and Van Drunen in fourth after passing several riderslike Franzoni and Papenmeier. Papenmeier in the end completed the top five, followed by Barker in sixth and De Baets MX-Yamaha Team's Danee Gelissen in seventh.

However, late in the race Fontanesi and Guillen were handed a penalty for failing to respect a waved yellow flag, costing them five points in the championship standings. Crucially, the sanction did not affect their race results or the Grand Prix overall, as they respectively claimed a 2-1 and 1-2 score to tie on points. Fontanesi took the victory thanks to her race win in the second one.

In the championship fight, van Drunen leaves Türkiye with a 16-point advantage over  Fontanesi and 17 over Guillén. With one round to go in Australia, the title battle is not over.

Kiara Fontanesi: “I felt amazing the whole weekend here. I liked the track and I knew I could feel pretty comfortable here, and that’s the result of enjoying riding. I took two good starts, two good races, found a good rhythm. It was definitely a big pressure with Daniela (Guillen) behind me for basically all the race, but it’s where we improve, it’s where we learn, it’s where we get better, and races like this are just amazing. I’m pretty happy to win three GPs out of five, it’s just an amazing season for me.”

Main Photo: Kiara Fontanesi 

Top Photo: WMX Start Afyon 2025 

Bottom Photos: 1. Daniela Guillen; 2. Martine Hughes

WMX -  Race 1 - Top 10 Classification: 1. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GASGAS), 24:28.129; 2. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GASGAS), +0:05.606; 3. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, Yamaha), +0:12.133; 4. Martine Hughes (NOR, Kawasaki), +0:51.820; 5. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, Yamaha), +0:54.694; 6. Lucy Barker (GBR, KTM), +0:57.347; 7. April Franzoni (FRA, Honda), +0:58.052; 8. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, Honda), +1:07.862; 9. Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), +1:30.781; 10. Shana van der Vlist (NED, Yamaha), +1:36.848

WMX – Race 2 - Top 10 Classification: 1. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GASGAS), 25:58.767; 2. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GASGAS), +0:02.293; 3. Martine Hughes (NOR, Kawasaki), +0:36.501; 4. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, Yamaha), +0:36.836; 5. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, Honda), +0:59.280; 6. Lucy Barker (GBR, KTM), +1:19.927; 7. Danee Gelissen (NED, Yamaha), +1:23.055; 8. Shana van der Vlist (NED, Yamaha), +1:23.182; 9. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, Yamaha), +1:32.569; 10. Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), +1:38.084

WMX Overall - Top 10 Classification: 1. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 47 points; 2. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 47 p.; 3. Martine Hughes (NOR, KAW), 38 p.; 4. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, YAM), 38 p.; 5. Lucy Barker (GBR, KTM), 30 p.; 6. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, HON), 29 p.; 7. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, YAM), 28 p.; 8. Shana van der Vlist (NED, YAM), 24 p.; 9. Danee Gelissen (NED, YAM), 23 p.; 10. Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), 23 p.

WMX World Championship - Top 10 Classification: 1. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, YAM), 218 points; 2. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 202 p.; 3. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 201 p.; 4. Shana van der Vlist (NED, YAM), 147 p.; 5. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, HON), 137 p.; 6. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, YAM), 136 p.; 7. Martine Hughes (NOR, KAW), 133 p.; 8. Danee Gelissen (NED, YAM), 129 p.; 9. Lynn Valk (NED, KTM), 118 p.; 10. April Franzoni (FRA, HON), 106 p

WMX Manufacturers - Top 10 Classification: 1. GASGAS, 228 points; 2. Yamaha, 220 p.; 3. KTM, 181 p.; 4. Honda, 142 p.; 5. Kawasaki, 133 p.; 6. Fantic, 63 p.; 7. Triumph, 40 p

All the photos from the MXGP of Turkiye will be available HERE.

You can find the complete results HERE.

MXGP OF TURKIYE QUICK FACTS:

Circuit length: 1800m

Type of ground: Hard Pack

Temperature: 25°/20°

Weather conditions: Cloudy

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