18-year-old Lucas Coenen of the De Carli KTM factory team is making ground fast on series leader, Romain Febvre of the Kawasaki factory team. After one round of this years MXGP championship in Argentina, he was already 20 points behind Kawasaki factory rider, Romain Febvre and it was 31 points after two rounds.

The crisis continued after a poor round four in Sardinia, and he was suddenly 40 points behind Febvre in the championship and 74 behind series leader, Tim Gajser. After round five in Trentino, he was 98 points behind Gajser. When Gajser exited the championship in Switzerland and all eyes moved to Febvre, the Belgian was 51 points behind the Frenchman in the championship points.

In Portugal though, Coenen started his charge, scoring 1-1-1 and 60 points and closing the gap slightly. From that moment on, he has closed the gap in nearly every single round, and it is now down to just 15 points. It is clear who has all the momentum at the moment, and it isn’t Febvre.

Last weekend in Finland, and in the sand, the Belgian teenager picked up yet another 1-1-1 and since that win in Portugal, his Sunday moto results have been sensational, going 4-1-1-2-1-2-2-2-2-3-1-1. On the Saturday, he has finished with 4-1-1-2-5-1.

It hasn’t been easy for Febvre, who hasn’t been bad, his 2-1-2 from the opening round in Argentina was a highlight, and of course his GP wins Sardinia, Spain, France and England, but he has often lost a small number of points to Coenen, most noticeably in Germany and Finland.

Now, as the riders enter Loket this weekend, the lead by Febvre is just 15 points, which is very close to the points advantage Coenen had over Febvre in the last round in Finland. Coenen scored 60 points with 1-1-1 and Febvre scored 6-5-2. If that happens this coming weekend, then the points gap will be in favour of the young Belgian.

Febvre won at Loket in 2023 with 1-4 scores, and Febvre went 7-6 for 31 points, although he was facing Gajser, Prado and Herlings, and with all three out this year, surely he cannot drop points like in 2024? Coenen went 1-4 in the MX2 class at Loket last year, so he clearly enjoys the circuit.

Whatever happens this weekend, with Lommel and Arnhem coming up, the battle in the sand might just decide who will be crowned World MXGP champion of 2025 and one thing we all hope, is it goes down to the wire in Australia in September.