Gajser was holding sixth in front of his fellow Slovenian Jan Pancar, who is always strong here on his TEM JP253 KTM, then Kay de Wolf was eighth on his return for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing. Ruben Fernandez did not get the best start, down in ninth for Honda HRC Petronas as the MRT Racing Team Beta of Jago Geerts started inside the top ten!
On lap two, Herlings made an outside pass at the bottom of the steepest descent on the track to take the lead from Vialle, and proceeded to power away from the field, as De Wolf and Fernandez both got past Pancar. Febvre started to make some ground after a few laps, relegating Adamo to fourth with a sharp pass on an uphill jump on lap five, and it took him another five laps to haul in and pass Vialle for second with a drag race from a slow corner up a long hill! Meanwhile, Van Doninck held onto fifth until half distance, when Fernandez overtook him into the corner before Pit Lane.
Gajser had crashed while catching the Fantic man on lap five, and caught him again by lap 13, but with three laps to go he crashed through a choppy corner, allowing De Wolf and Van Doninck back through into sixth and seventh. It was a season-best finish for the Belgian, as was eighth place for his countryman Geerts! Isak Gifting also got past Gajser after his crash to claim ninth for JK Racing Yamaha, putting the ex-Champ into tenth at the flag.
Up front, however, Herlings claimed his ninth race win of the year to take the Championship lead, with Febvre and Vialle over 18 seconds behind, and Adamo taking a fine fourth ahead of Fernandez.
It looked like Vialle had taken yet another Fox Holeshot Award to equal Lucas Coenen’s total for the year in race two, but closer inspection revealed that Jeremy Seewer, who had retired early in race one, claimed that prize for Venrooy KTM Racing, his first one since Sardegna in April 2025! Vialle soon restored normal order as he passed the Swiss rider on the first uphill, with Gajser and Herlings also moving ahead on the following few sections. Fernandez and Pancar were also inside the top six, ahead of Maxime Renaux, who had suffered a heavy crash that put him out of race one. Tom Koch was eighth initially for KTM Sarholz Racing Team, with local rider Jakub Teresak within the top ten for HT Racing Group KTM, and Roan Van De Moosdijk also in there for Kosak KTM Racing.
Herlings was in emphatic mood, and put together a solid pass through a right-left sequence of corners to get past Gajser for second on lap two, then pulled almost exactly the same move on Vialle to lead just a lap later! Meanwhile, his teammate Fernandez was working on Seewer, moving up to fourth on lap five. From there, the top four were set for the race!
Romain Febvre had been caught in a pile-up with De Wolf and Gifting in the first corner, and then Van Doninck and Horgmo hit the floor together in turn two! Adamo had also suffered a first lap crash, and although De Wolf retired from the race almost immediately, Febvre put in a stunning charge to reach the top ten by lap five!