France Tops MXoN Qualifying As Australia Secures Direct Spot For Sunday Showdown

The home crowd got exactly what it wanted at Ernée on Saturday, with Team France winning the qualifying races at the 2026 FIM Motocross of Nations and securing first gate pick for Sunday’s main events.

But from an Australian perspective, there was plenty to like as Jed Beaton, Alex Larwood and Aaron Tanti combined to safely qualify Team Australia directly into the A-Final and keep the nation firmly in the hunt heading into the Peter Chamberlain Trophy races.

Under warm late-summer sunshine at the iconic Circuit Raymond Demy, tens of thousands of fans packed the famous French hillside venue and were rewarded with a spectacular day of racing. France topped the qualifying standings with just three points after strong rides from Mathis Valin, Romain Febvre and Tom Vialle, while Spain and Belgium completed the top three nations.

Australia finished ninth overall in qualifying, comfortably securing a place in Sunday’s main races and avoiding the pressure of the B-Final.

France’s charge was led by Valin, who made a dream return from injury by winning the MX2 qualifying race. The Kawasaki rider had not raced since a heavy crash in Portugal back in June but immediately showed his speed, topping free practice before converting it into victory. Afterwards, Valin admitted the comeback meant a lot, saying: “The last few months have been tough for me, so I’m really happy to be back on the track. It’s been a while since I last raced, so I’m really happy to put France on top for the moment. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

Spain remains France’s biggest threat after Jorge Prado claimed victory in the MXGP qualifying race. The former world champion overcame an early mistake and pressure from Febvre to take the win, while newly crowned MX2 World Champion Guillem Farres fought through to fourth in MX2 and Francisco Garcia added sixth in the Open class.

Belgium also looks dangerous heading into Sunday. Liam Everts finished second in the Open race, while Lucas Coenen recovered from a first-turn crash to finish fifth in MXGP. Twin brother Sacha Coenen crashed while leading the MX2 race but still salvaged seventh.

For Australia, the standout result came from newly crowned ProMX MX1 Champion Beaton. Riding the #1 CDR Yamaha, Beaton ran inside the top five for much of the MXGP qualifying race before eventually finishing sixth against a world-class field. It was a composed and impressive ride that helped lay the foundation for Australia’s top-10 qualifying finish.

Beaton had shown speed from the opening laps after moving past Jorgen-Mathias Talviku and running fourth behind Febvre, Prado and Jan Pancar. He eventually crossed the line sixth after a late charge from Lucas Coenen, still delivering valuable points for Team Australia.

Alex Larwood also put together a solid performance in MX2. The South Australian started near the front and ran inside the top five early before a mistake dropped him down the order. He recovered to finish 10th, providing another important score for the Australian team.

Aaron Tanti completed Australia’s day in the Open class. He briefly ran fourth early in the race before being shuffled backwards by several MXGP regulars and eventually finished 11th. While just outside the top 10, the result was enough to help Australia secure direct qualification for Sunday.

The MXGP qualifying race produced one of the day’s biggest stories as Prado defeated hometown favourite Romain Febvre. The French crowd erupted when Febvre grabbed the holeshot, but Prado quickly worked his way forward after an early mistake and eventually took control of the race.

Reflecting on the win, Prado said: “It was a crazy one. The 15-second board went up and I wasn’t even on my bike, I was still getting to my gate, so I had to start straight away. I still got a pretty good start, made a mistake on the first lap and dropped back to third, then worked my way up to first.

“The track is super tight and there’s a lot of water in places, so it’s slippery and I was being careful not to go over the bars. The lappers were hard to manage too, because when someone is 20 seconds slower you don’t know if they’ll go left or right. I think tomorrow will be better once everybody has qualified. I’m happy with P1 today, we’re in a good flow right now and we’ll do even better tomorrow.”

Behind Prado and Febvre, Slovenia’s Jan Pancar delivered one of the rides of the day with third place, helping keep his nation firmly in contention.

The MX2 qualifying race belonged to Valin, although it was far from straightforward. Coenen led early before crashing while under pressure from the Frenchman, allowing Valin to move through and take a hugely emotional victory in front of his home fans. Triumph’s Camden Mc Lellan continued his excellent recent form with second place for South Africa, while American Levi Kitchen charged from outside the top 10 on the opening lap to finish third.

Farres recovered from an early mistake to finish fourth and keep Spain right in the fight heading into Sunday.

The Open qualifying race saw newly crowned MXGP World Champion Jeffrey Herlings return to winning form. The Dutchman quickly moved past Vialle and disappeared at the front, eventually winning by almost 20 seconds.

After the race, Herlings praised his Honda machinery and looked ahead to Sunday’s battles.

“My jump out of the gate wasn’t great, but on the Honda HRC Petronas bike I was the fastest out there, so I’m very thankful for this bike,” Herlings said. “I need the same thing tomorrow. If I can get the same starts, I can fight for the win with Jorge, and also with Tom and Romain. As a team it’s going to be difficult to get on the podium, but my riding was good, I felt strong and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s races.”

Everts finished second for Belgium ahead of Vialle, while Andrea Adamo, Pauls Jonass and Garcia rounded out the top six. Team USA’s Cooper Webb finished seventh in his first race aboard Husqvarna machinery ahead of next year’s Team Tedder-Husqvarna programme.

With France earning first gate pick ahead of Spain and Belgium, the hosts enter Sunday’s main races as favourites. However, the margins remain tight, and the Motocross of Nations has a long history of producing surprises.

For Australia, the mission on Saturday was simple: qualify directly and put themselves in position to challenge on Sunday. Beaton, Larwood and Tanti achieved exactly that, and with all three riders safely through to the main event, Team Australia will now turn its attention to climbing the standings when the racing that truly matters gets underway.

2026 MXoN – Nations Qualification – Top 10
Pos	Team	Points
1st	France	3 Points
2nd	Spain	5 Points
3rd	Belgium	7 Points
4th	Italy	8 Points
5th	Latvia	10 Points
6th	The Netherlands	10 Points
7th	USA	10 Points
8th	Switzerland	15 Points
9th	Australia	16 Points
10th	Great Britain	19 Points

2026 MXoN – Qualifying Heat Open – Classification
Pos	No	Rider	Nat	Bike	Gap
1st	57	Jeffrey Herlings	NED	Honda	+0:00.000
2nd	12	Liam Everts	BEL	Husqvarna	+0:19.625
3rd	9	Tom Vialle	FRA	Honda	+0:43.237
4th	18	Andrea Adamo	ITA	KTM	+0:49.072
5th	27	Pauls Jonass	LAT	Kawasaki	+0:52.382
6th	30	Francisco Garcia	ESP	Kawasaki	+0:57.044
7th	6	Cooper Webb	USA	Husqvarna	+0:58.140
8th	45	Noah Ludwig	GER	KTM	+1:21.780
9th	24	Kevin Brumann	SUI	Husqvarna	+1:29.576
10th	48	Ben Watson	GBR	Triumph	+1:32.659
11th	66	Dylan Wright	CAN	Honda	+1:34.812
12th	3	Aaron Tanti	AUS	Yamaha	+1:37.574
13th	21	Alvin Östlund	SWE	Triumph	+1:43.374
14th	36	Enzo Lopes	BRA	Honda	+1 lap
15th	69	Jere Haavisto	FIN	KTM	+1 lap
16th	117	Vaclav Kovar	CZE	KTM	+1 lap
17th	39	Kaarel Tilk	EST	Husqvarna	+1 lap
18th	123	Pavol Repcak	SVK	KTM	+1 lap
19th	54	Sander Agard-Michelsen	NOR	Yamaha	+1 lap
20th	63	Michael Sandner	AUT	Husqvarna	+1 lap
21st	87	Jason Meara	IRL	Yamaha	+1 lap
22nd	126	Erlandas Mackonis	LTU	Yamaha	+1 lap
23rd	42	Trey Cox	RSA	KTM	+1 lap
24th	15	Lukas Osek	SLO	KTM	+1 lap
25th	90	Fabricio Chacon	CLAT	Yamaha	+1 lap
26th	99	Erick Ismael Vazquez Diaz	MEX	Ducati	+2 laps
27th	93	Noam Jayal	MAR	Kawasaki	+2 laps
28th	102	Tristan Berg Arason	ISL	Yamaha	+3 laps
29th	105	Mykhailo Vasko	UKR	Husqvarna	+4 laps
30th	120	Matej Jaros	CRO	Kawasaki	+8 laps
31st	33	Yuki Okura	JPN	Honda	+10 laps

2026 MXoN – Qualifying Heat MXGP – Classification
Pos	No	Rider	Nat	Bike	Gap
1st	28	Jorge Prado	ESP	KTM	+0:00.000
2nd	7	Romain Febvre	FRA	Kawasaki	+0:01.923
3rd	13	Jan Pancar	SLO	KTM	+0:37.588
4th	16	Alberto Forato	ITA	Fantic	+0:40.359
5th	10	Lucas Coenen	BEL	KTM	+0:45.248
6th	1	Jed Beaton	AUS	Yamaha	+0:50.039
7th	37	Jorgen-Matthias Talviku	EST	Fantic	+1:05.687
8th	25	Karlis Alberts Reisulis	LAT	Yamaha	+1:20.043
9th	46	Taylor Hammal	GBR	Kawasaki	+1:22.858
10th	55	Roan Van De Moosdijk	NED	KTM	+1:27.086
11th	22	Valentin Guillod	SUI	Yamaha	+1:47.037
12th	58	Mads Fredsoe	DEN	KTM	+1:52.215
13th	19	Isak Gifting	SWE	Yamaha	+1:55.079
14th	4	Julien Beaumer	USA	KTM	+2:00.564
15th	43	Tom Koch	GER	KTM	+2:03.003
16th	64	Tanner Ward	CAN	Husqvarna	+1 lap
17th	121	Tomas Kohut	SVK	KTM	+1 lap
18th	31	Kainosuke Oshiro	JPN	Yamaha	+1 lap
19th	34	Fabio Santos	BRA	Yamaha	+1 lap
20th	67	Emil Weckman	FIN	Triumph	+1 lap
21st	61	Michael Kratzer	AUT	Honda	+1 lap
22nd	115	Petr Rathousky	CZE	KTM	+1 lap
23rd	85	Lennox Dickinson	IRL	Honda	+1 lap
24th	40	Slade Smith	RSA	Yamaha	+1 lap
25th	52	Leander Thunshelle	NOR	Honda	+1 lap
26th	88	Joaquin Poli	CLAT	Kawasaki	+1 lap
27th	124	Domantas Jazdauskas	LTU	KTM	+1 lap
28th	118	Matija Kelava	CRO	Yamaha	+1 lap
29th	97	Jorge Israel Rubalcava	MEX	KTM	+2 laps
30th	100	Ingvar Sverrir Einarsson	ISL	GASGAS	+2 laps
31st	103	Roman Morozov	UKR	Yamaha	+6 laps
32nd	91	Maxime Simon	MAR	Honda	+10 laps

2026 MXoN – Qualifying Heat MX2 – Classification
Pos	No	Rider	Nat	Bike	Gap
1st	8	Mathis Valin	FRA	Kawasaki	+0:00.000
2nd	41	Camden Mc Lellan	RSA	Triumph	+0:06.159
3rd	5	Levi Kitchen	USA	Kawasaki	+0:18.989
4th	29	Guillem Farres	ESP	Triumph	+0:20.331
5th	26	Janis Martins Reisulis	LAT	Yamaha	+0:33.764
6th	23	Jeremy Seewer	SUI	KTM	+0:40.550
7th	11	Sacha Coenen	BEL	KTM	+0:45.439
8th	17	Ferruccio Zanchi	ITA	Ducati	+0:49.378
9th	56	Glenn Coldenhoff	NED	Yamaha	+0:58.744
10th	2	Alex Larwood	AUS	Honda	+0:59.325
11th	59	Nicolai Skovbjerg	DEN	Husqvarna	+1:11.228
12th	20	Alve Callemo	SWE	Husqvarna	+1:29.165
13th	62	Ricardo Bauer	AUT	KTM	+1:41.431
14th	38	Sebastian Leok	EST	Husqvarna	+1:56.764
15th	65	Dylan Rempel	CAN	Honda	+1:41.013
16th	47	Ben Mustoe	GBR	GASGAS	+2:00.317
17th	53	Pelle Gundersen	NOR	Husqvarna	+2:08.991
18th	35	Guilherme Bresolin	BRA	Kawasaki	+1 lap
19th	44	Valentin Kees	GER	KTM	+1 lap
20th	32	Haruki Yokoyama	JPN	Kawasaki	+1 lap
21st	86	Glenn McCormick	IRL	KTM	+1 lap
22nd	68	Saku Mansikkamäki	FIN	KTM	+1 lap
23rd	116	David Widerwill	CZE	GASGAS	+1 lap
24th	125	Marius Adomaitis	LTU	Husqvarna	+1 lap
25th	92	Saad Soulimani	MAR	TM Moto	+1 lap
26th	14	Jaka Peklaj	SLO	Husqvarna	+1 lap
27th	122	Jaroslav Katrinak	SVK	Husqvarna	+1 lap
28th	89	Carlos Badiali	CLAT	Yamaha	+1 lap
29th	119	Simun Ivandic	CRO	Yamaha	+1 lap
30th	101	Eric Mani Gudmundsson	ISL	KTM	+2 laps
31st	104	Ostap Andrukh	UKR	GASGAS	+2 laps
32nd	98	Fernando Velazquez	MEX	Triumph	+3 laps