Lucas Coenen – Mr Perfect

19-year-old Belgian, Lucas Coenen goes into this weekends MXGP of Switzerland with not only confidence from his victory in Andalucia last weekend, but also knowing he won the Swiss GP in 2025 and enjoys that track as well.

If we all thought that Jeffrey Herlings would have his own way in the second round of the MXGP championship of 2026, then Coenen made sure to bring us all back to reality, as the Red Bull KTM man went 1-1-1 for the weekend. His Saturday win set him up for another perfect day in the Sunday.

“A win is never easy,” Coenen said on Saturday. “I really enjoyed it out there. I made a big mistake at one point, but I’m trying to push myself and learn, even on the difficult sections. The track is fun but very technical, so I knew Sunday was going to be tough. The track was brutal and after the first moto (on Sunday) my hand was already completely red and I said to myself, I hope the blister on my hand doesn’t pop in the beginning of the second race. I hit the triple and it popped open and it was pretty painful, but you don’t really feel it, because it’s for the win. I took those two good starts and just pushed the whole way through. It was good. It was pretty tough and it was even in some ways tougher than Lommel, because underneath its hard and you get a lot of impact on your arms, it’s really tough on the arms. Overall, it suited me.”

Amazingly, despite being world number two in both MX2 and MXGP in 2024 and 2025, the red plate attached to the KTM of Coenen in Switzerland, will be his first ever red plate. With just two rounds done, Coenen knows that it will take a lot more moto victories and GP wins for him to keep the red plate until the end of the season.

“My first red plate! My first one, but it’s only the beginning of the season, so we got to be consistent. I am so pumped at the moment, but we all know the season is still so long. The team worked really hard for me after the GP in Argentina and we bounced back pretty good. Fast starts and I passed people quickly here. I then managed the storm. Three wins this weekend: I can’t do better. We’ll try to keep it like that and look to the next round.”

And as for racing two legends in the form of Jeffrey Herlings and Tim Gajser, the teenager isn’t worried that they have so much experience, as he knows that on any day, he can beat anyone.

“It is about being good under pressure. Everything clicked and I am sure about myself, so that is good. When you are on the podium, you realize with who you are standing, but on the gate, I am young, but I am the same as them. So, its kind of mental and it isn’t always easy, but I manage the pressure. When you do that good in the first season, it puts a lot of pressure on you and people are waiting on you, but I think I answered that question today. The season is still very long, and you have to keep pushing and also keep improving.”

And now onto Switzerland, where his 1-1 results last year saw him stand on top of the podium, and with Herlings and Gajser finishing in seventh and ninth overall, that confidence that he picked up last weekend will be huge.

Photo credit: KTM