THE MOUNTAINS AWAIT THIS WEEKEND’S MONSTER ENERGY MXGP OF TRENTINO!
The 2025 FIM Motocross World Championship concludes its first quarter with the return to the Italian mainland, and arguably the most picturesque venue on the calendar, the classic “Il Ciclamino” circuit at Pietramurata, for what is sure to be a stellar Monster Energy MXGP of Trentino!
One of 33 circuits in Italian territory to play host to a Motocross Grand Prix, Pietramurata has ran more of these events than any of the rest, this being the 21st time that World Championship Motocross enjoys the sound of engines bouncing off the cliff faces next to the track!
The first winner here was an Italian, on an Italian machine, as Massimo Contini claimed overall victory on his 125cc Cagiva in 1987. This will be the 14th year in succession that Trentino has hosted an event, and during both pandemic-affected years of 2020 and 2021 we even held three GPs here within eight days!
In terms of most victories at this iconic circuit, well it comes down to the icons of World Motocross in the 21st Century, as four riders have each taken five GP wins… and three of those will line up this weekend!
The clearest candidate for taking a record sixth win is the current MXGP Championship leader, Tim Gajser, who took the very first of his 51 GP victories here in 2015, the year of his MX2 world title. He will be looking to take his third GP win of the year for Honda HRC, or at the very least extend his 34-point Championship lead in front of what is the closest thing he has to a home crowd, as his fan club make the short journey from Slovenia to make some noise for their hero!
While the winner of the last two GPs here in the premier class, Jorge Prado, is not racing, the other two five-time winners here are, namely Red Bull KTM Factory Racing legend Jeffrey Herlings, and the exciting return to action of nine-time World Champion Antonio Cairoli! The Sicilian icon will take to the circuit for Aruba.it Ducati Factory MX Team at the age of 39! His five wins here include the most recent GP win of his career, in October 2021, and this may very well be the last ever GP of his incredible time as a racer.
The MX2 class is once more being led by the reigning World Champion Kay de Wolf, who won the first race here last year for his current team, Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, but fell in the first corner of race two. In a title race that sees the top four covered by just 14 points, and with all of them enjoying good recent results at Trentino, the MX2 races are sure to be wide open and entertaining! Flip a coin, or even roll a die, to take a guess at the winner!
The EMX250 European Championship returns to action this weekend, with two-stroke Wozniak MX Racing Team hero Adrien Petit leading the way by just a single point from VHR VRT Yamaha Official EMX250 rider Janis Reisulis. Reisulis won at Trentino in EMX125 in 2023. The top Italian in the series is Brando Rispoli for Ghidinelli Racing Team KTM, but last year’s EMX125 winner here, Simone Mancini, will have high hopes to get the crowd excited for Fantic Factory Racing EMX250!
Hungarian Aron Katona leads the EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing Championship for Racestore KTM Factory Rookies after a double win in Sardegna, with fellow sand lover Dani Heitink in second for the MJC Yamaha Official EMX125 squad. Behind them in the Championship sit four Italians, all hungry for success on home soil!
Francesco Bellei for Fantic Factory Racing EMX125, Katona’s teammate Nicolò Alvisi, and Niccolò Mannini on the TM Moto CRD Motosport machine will all be looking for home glory. Riccardo Pini for MCV Motorsport TM is also right in the mix, and there is a real chance of an all-Italian podium on home hard-pack!
The Monster Energy MXGP of Trentino is one of the most celebrated events on the World Championship Motocross calendar, and it promises to deliver incredible racing across all four classes!
Tim Gajser didn’t seem to push for the maximum in Sardegna as the races were won by Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rookie Lucas Coenen and Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP veteran Romain Febvre, with the Frenchman taking the overall victory to narrow the gap at the top slightly to the Honda HRC man.
As mentioned above, Gajser is going for a record sixth GP win at this circuit, after MXGP wins in 2019, two in 2020, and one in 2022 to add to his first ever win back in MX2. In contrast, while Febvre is at home in the hardpack and has won individual races in 2016, 2020, 2021, and last year’s first outing, he has never quite got to the top step at Pietramurata. Now would be a very good time to break that duck!
Next one up in the points table is Glenn Coldenhoff, making his best start yet to an MXGP campaign for Fantic Factory Racing, taking two of the Italian brand’s first ever podium finishes and riding with supreme consistency. A race winner at Trentino in MX2, 11 years ago on a Suzuki, he also took second overall here in one of the 2021 events, so maintaining his good run is not out of the question.
Coenen has been electrifying in his first MXGP season, but he hasn’t enjoyed a good day at Trentino since winning in EMX125 in 2021, scoring just 10-9 finishes in MX2 last season. Maxime Renaux had an awful MXGP of Sardegna for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP and faces a battle to be fit for Trentino, where he won his final MX2 GP in 2021. His teammate Jago Geerts has won here twice in MX2 and is starting to make progress in the MXGP class this season.
Coenen’s teammate Herlings is still getting back up to speed and is unlikely to add to his wins here from 2013, ’14, ’16, ’18 and ’21. When Jeffrey first won here in 2013, in MX2, it was Cairoli who took victory in MX1, as it was known then! TC222 took further wins in 2016, ’17, ’20, and ’21. His first appearance here on an Italian machine, standing in for the injured Mattia Guadagnini, will gain a lot of attention, and who knows what that bit of Tony magic can produce on race day!
Kevin Horgmo sits in a brilliant sixth position in the Championship for Team Motul Honda Motoblouz SR, and he likes the Trentino circuit after an EMX250 win here in 2021. Other former winners in Trentino are Ben Watson, who just scored his best result of the season for MRT Racing Team Beta, and Jeremy Seewer, who took both Fox Holeshot Awards for Aruba.it MX Factory Team last time out.
The top Italian in MXGP right now is Andrea Bonacorsi, who has progressed massively for Fantic Factory Racing, and after a great third place in what turned out to be his final ever MX2 race last year, he will have high hopes of performing well in front of his home fans for the first time on a 450!
With 49 riders entered, the circuit will be a full one in MXGP this weekend, and with the younger generation starting to push against their more experienced competitors, the class is building into a fascinating contest, and the tricky slopes of the Il Ciclamino circuit will test all of them in a cauldron-like atmosphere!
MXGP – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 215 Points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 181 Points; 3. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 156 Pts; 4. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 141 Points; 5. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 125 Points; 6. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 114 Pts; 7. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 110 Pts; 8. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, FAN), 104 Points; 9. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KAW), 86 Pts; 10. Mattia Guadagnini (ITA, DUC), 84 Pts.
The Championship leader’s red plate has been more of a pinball than ever before in the MX2 class this season, with six different winners in the first six races, and a seventh rider claiming two Qualifying Race wins!
Kay de Wolf broke that run of different winners by taking both of Sunday’s races with amazing riding at Riola Sardo, but he still holds just an eight-point lead over the top Red Bull KTM Factory Racing pilot, Simon Laengenfelder. The German has won the second race at Trentino in each of the last two years, but is still searching for his first GP victory since the end of 2023, as well as his first possession of the red plate!
The last two winners of the MX2 class at Pietramurata then bring up the chase. Liam Everts, now with Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, is just two points behind Laengenfelder after losing the red plate in Sardegna, while 2023 Trentino winner Andrea Adamo is just four markers further back for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing! The home favourite did win the Qualifying Race here last year, but it’s worth noting that neither rider has actually won an individual GP race here, showing how consistency is the key around this difficult circuit!
Langenfelder’s teammate Sacha Coenen lies fifth in the standings, and will probably be hoping for a weekend without a big crash, after suffering some mighty get-offs in the last two GPs. He will still carry plenty of speed, however, and after winning the last GP on the Italian mainland, in Maggiora last year, he cannot be counted out of a podium spot, not even the top one!
Thibault Benistant has shown great speed on hard pack this season, and scored two Qualifying Race wins for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2, and is highly likely to challenge at the front after finishing second overall here last year! He sits sixth in the standings ahead of Monster Energy Triumph Racing’s Camden McLellan, who is coming off of his best ever result in MX2 last weekend.
Since taking his first career race win in the Spanish mud at Cozar, Honda HRC man Ferruccio Zanchi has had a tough time of it, and will be aiming to re-ignite his season on home ground. His rookie teammate Valerio Lata rounds out the top ten of the series, but has great memories of the Pietramurata circuit, having won a round here in EMX125 in 2021, as well as the last two years in EMX250! Will that extra fire bring the teenage hotshot towards the front?
In for an interesting wildcard appearance, and completing a 40-rider entry list in MX2, is reigning Women’s Motocross World Champion Lotte van Drunen, lining up to build her hard pack skills for De Baets Yamaha MX-Team.
With one of the best atmospheres of the entire series, the Monster Energy MXGP of Trentino is not one to be missed! Watch it all on MXGP-TV.com, or even come and join us by the Dolomites for a memorable experience! It’s gonna be a firecracker!
MX2 – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 185 Points; 2. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, KTM), 177 Points; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 175 Pts; 4. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 171 Pts; 5. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 143 Pts; 6. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 128 Pts; 7. Camden McLellan (RSA, TRI), 118 Pts; 8. Cas Valk (NED, KTM), 115 Pts; 9. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 97 Pts; 10. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 84 Pts.
Text/Bild: Infront