The third round of the FIM Motocross World Championship took place at the Schollenholz circuit in Switzerland. For the first time in 2026, racers were faced with wet conditions as overnight rains soaked the track for Sunday’s schedule. The treacherous conditions saw four different winners emerge with a new face in every gate drop. Despite the challenges, Tom Vialle and Simon Laengenfelder minimized their mistakes and came away with their respective victories.
MXGP
Vialle tangled with his Honda HRC Petronas teammate Ruben Fernandez during Saturday’s qualifying race, which left Vialle with a poor starting position for Sunday’s first moto. Somehow, the French rider still got a great jump and cut across the field to steal the lead away in the first turn. Vialle stuck to his lines and cruised away with the top spot while other riders faced mechanical issues due to the deep ruts. Two of Vialle’s main competitors, Lucas Coenen and Jeffrey Herlings, challenged in the early portion of the race but both riders suffered the same fate of derailed chains, which forced them out of the race. This allowed Vialle to take the opening win by a margin of more than 10 seconds. Behind him, Maxime Renaux and Ruben Fernandez rounded out the podium in race one.
After a disastrous opening moto, Coenen fired back with a holeshot to start race two. The Red Bull KTM Factory rider continued to build his lead as the running order shuffled behind him. At the line, Coenen clinched the race win by a 12-second margin as he salvaged enough points to maintain the red plate. Vialle faced his share of troubles as he fell early on. The Honda rider worked his way back to sixth, which granted him the overall win for the first time this season. It’s also Vialle’s first-ever MXGP overall win, as he now moves to second in the championship standings.
“I really didn’t know that I had won when I crossed the line,” Vialle said. “I thought I’d be on the podium, because other riders didn’t have two good scores, but I just wanted to try and pass as many guys as possible in that second moto. Still, it is very cool to have won the GP, my first in the MXGP class and my first with this new team and hopefully the first of many. It was a very tricky circuit and not something I’m used to, but I kept fighting until the end, and while I did make a couple of mistakes, it is good to know that I have been at the front in three different types of tracks.”
Tim Gajser and Herlings traded positions late in the race as the two former champions claimed the final two spots on the podium. The mishap from Herlings in race one prevented an overall podium as Renaux and Gajser put both of their Yamahas on the overall podium in second and third, respectively. It was Renaux’s best finish of the season.
“The first race was solid,” Renaux said. “I had a good start, good pace, and worked my way up to second. The second race was more difficult. I had another good start but then crashed, and after that I was riding quite tight. Maybe a bit of last year’s experience was still in my head. But I’m injury-free now, which feels great.”
“The first race wasn’t great,” Gajser said. “I didn’t have the best start and crashed twice, so I wasn’t happy with ninth. For the second race I regrouped and treated it like a new race. The track was a bit better with more lines, and I found some good ones, made some passes, and finished second. A podium is always positive, and it’s good to be consistent, but I still feel we are improving.”
MX2
The muddy conditions were at their worst for the first MX2 race as Kawasaki’s Mathis Valin grabbed the holeshot and early lead. He easily led the way for most of the race until his chain derailed in one of the deep ruts and forced him out of the race.
This handed the lead over to Triumph’s Guillem Farres, who’s been running at the front as of late. The Spanish rider looked good but later clipped a lapped rider and fell out of first place. This mistake allowed the defending MX2 champion, Simon Laengenfelder, to advance with the moto-one victory. His KTM teammate, Sacha Coenen, finished second, with Liam Everts holding off Farres for third at the line.
Farres came back with a holeshot in race two as Everts again closely tailed him. The two gapped the rest of the field as they took their battle all the way to the line and finished less than a second apart. Farres ended up with the win and used 4-1 scores to take second overall with Everts’ 3-2 giving him second on the day. Laengenfelder used consistency to his advantage and finished the day with 1-3 moto scores to take the overall win. This is his second victory in three rounds and moves him back into the championship lead with a 22-point advantage.
“A good one,” Laengenfelder said. “Tough conditions, and it wasn’t an easy race—passing and the backmarkers were tricky—but I liked it out there today. It’s usually what we find here. Yesterday was hard, but I made it happen today, and we got the red plate back.”
Camden McLellan entered the weekend with the red plate but lost it due to two poor finishes. An eighth in race one set him back before he crashed out of race two. Luckily nothing is broken, and the Triumph rider should be back in the hunt come round four.CN
2026 MX2 & MXGP Switzerland Video Highlights
2026 FIM MXGP Round 3 Results
MXGP (Top 5)
- Tom Vialle (Hon) 1-6
- Maxime Renaux (Yam) 2-7
- Tim Gajser (Yam) 9-2
- Kay de Wolf (Hus) 5-4
- Romain Febvre (Kaw) 4-5
MX2 (Top 5)
- Simon Laengenfelder (KTM) 1-3
- Guillem Farres (Tri) 4-1
- Liam Everts (Hus) 3-2
- Sacha Coenen (KTM) 2-7
- Valerio Lata (Hon) 5-4
