Simon Laengenfelder has won the 2025 FIM MX2 Motocross World Championship after finishing 2nd at a busy, hot and storm-hit Hidden Valley Motorsports Complex for the Grand Prix of Australia and the final round of the season. The 21-year-old became the second German #1 in the MX2 class for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and the first for his country in FIM motocross competition since 2011. Lucas Coenen ruled the MXGP division in Darwin and the 18-year-old caps an outstanding and record-breaking debut year in the premier class as runner-up.
MXGP jetted from a sweltering Chinese Grand Prix to another humid and challenging tropical climate: this time in Australia’s northern territories and to the confines of the new Hidden Valley Motorsports motocross circuit. The track was clay-based, sandy and hard-packed in sections and suitably spectacular. The complex was surrounded by a large attendance as the world championship arrived back in the country for the first time since 2001.
Red Bull KTM still had chances of MXGP and MX2 titles in Australia. Lucas Coenen faced a 47-point deficit with 60 points on offer and Simon Laengenfelder led defending #1 Kay De Wolf by 16 points in MX2. The team had Jeffrey Herlings in bright form with consecutive wins in the Netherlands, Turkey and China while the MX2 trio had banked three of the last four rounds. The Grand Prix began on Saturday with Coenen escaping to win the qualification heat while Herlings was P7. In the MX2 class Sacha Coenen, Laengenfelder and Andrea Adamo were P2, P4 and P5 respectively.
On Sunday the Grand Prix was severely affected by weather. The first motos took place in dry conditions and in front of a bustling crowd. Coenen repeated his authority from Saturday and, after his 13th holeshot of the term, eased to his fourteenth moto victory of the season, with Herlings in 2nd place. 4th position for Romain Febvre meant that Coenen solidified his position as official runner-up for the year. In MX2 there was drama as Laengenfelder clashed with title rival De Wolf but still finished P2. Adamo was P6 and Coenen fell on his way to P13. The young Belgian was determined to end 2025 in a more positive fashion in the second moto, and seized his seventeenth holeshot. Laengenfelder again hit the soil in the first laps and his world title seemed under threat but then a tropical storm washed through the area and flooded the track. Laengenfelder kept going through the deluge and when the red flag was shown he was 6th for P2 overall, and placed both hands on the gold number plate. Adamo had already retired and ranked 11th on the day (for the bronze medal in the championship) while Coenen’s recovery allowed him to sign-off his second GP term with P4 and the same standing in the points table.
The track state forced the second MXGP moto to be scrapped. Therefore, Lucas Coenen increased his GP win column number to five and 13 podiums while Herlings pulled a curtain on 2025 with his sixth rostrum and fourth trophy in a row, having already won five GPs in fifteen appearances.
2025 has involved 20 Grands Prix, 40 motos (39 in MXGP) and 20 Qualification Heats. In the MXGP category, with the KTM 450 SX-F, Red Bull KTM have aced 10 GPs, 22 moto wins and 12 Quali races. Coenen and Herlings have tallied 19 podium finishes for the year. In MX2, with the KTM 250SX-F, Red Bull KTM have filled three of the top four final championship slots. The team have won 12 GPs, clinched 23 motos and 9 qualification races. Adamo, Coenen and Laengenfelder captured 34 trophies. On 12 occasions there was more than one Red Bull KTM rider on the podium and the trio lined all three steps at the Grands Prix of France and China. Red Bull KTM won both categories on the same day at seven GPs in 2025.
The Motocross of Nations is the traditional season closer. For the second time since 2022 it will take place on American turf and more than 30 nations will travel to the Ironman circuit near Crawfordsville on the first weekend of October. Red Bull KTM will have four of their current Grand Prix racers active in the USA.
Lucas Coenen, 1st overall in MXGP and 2nd in the championship: “Coming into this year people thought I would crash out rightaway. As an 18-year-old you hate to hear that, and you want to ignore it, but you also keep in your head. Proving people wrong was a challenge for me and I was trying to do my best and keep consistent because I know I was going against guys with a lot of experience of how to handle a championship. I kept believing in myself and never gave up and I want to thank the team and the people close to me because this 2nd position in the championship wouldn’t have been possible. I made mistakes, I made changes and I learnt a lot. Next year I will be even more ‘boosted’ and will try to get on top, like Romain did this year.”
