The defence of his MXGP world championship has been anything but smooth for the two-time world champion, Romain Febvre. Having won the title at the backend of 2025, the Frenchman, who races for the Kawasaki factory team, sits in fifth in the championship points this year and is already 40 points off the red plate man, and last years biggest rival, Lucas Coenen of the Red Bull KTM factory team.

Pascal Haudiquert image

"We had an issue yesterday which cost me everything today. I had some luck in the first moto that I could find a gate on the inside so I could make the holeshot and lead for most of the race, but I made a mistake with five laps to and that cost me the win. There was no gate free in the second moto, so I was completely outside at the gate. I took another good start, but I was too far outside to make it across before the first turn. I tried to push too hard on the first lap and made a mistake and then it was too far to catch the leaders."

Last weekend’s 2-12 performance really came after a very poor gate pick on Sunday, due to his DNF on Saturday. Fortunately, in the opening moto, he was gifted a better starting position when a spot in the middle of the gate was left, allowing Febvre to have a brilliant start. Febvre rebounded from his Saturday misfortune, when he DNFed with a bike issue, to earn a strong moto second in the Trentino round of the FIM World MXGP Motocross Championship at Pietramurata.

The Frenchman's KX450-SR gave him perfect traction as he swept to a clear holeshot in the first moto and confidently controlled the race from the front, maintaining a comfortable advantage over the chasers for half-an-hour.

The race became ever more hectic in the closing stages as the leaders were continually confronted with lapped riders and his closest chaser was able to take advantage, finding the opportunity to pass on the penultimate lap so Febvre had to settle for second.

The unfavourable gate-pick from Qualifying proved his downfall in race two as, despite gating well, there was no chance to sweep across the pack from the outside of the grid and he found himself mid-pack.

A fall as he tried energetically to make quick passes put him even further back outside the top twenty and, despite a strong charge, he had to be content with twelfth at the chequered flag. This earnt sixth overall, just off the podium, and he has maintained fifth in the series standings.