Ahead of the MXGP World Championships getting underway this weekend in Argentina. We went back in time and compiled some stats. Of course there are points you have to consider: Nowadays there’s twenty Grand Prix’s a year so there’s more opportunities for riders to win than in the past when there were only around twelve GP’s.
The format has also changed considerably throughout the year. There’s now only two world championships whereas in the past there were three: 125cc, 250cc and 500cc classes. For a brief period the MX3 series was also considered a World Championship.
Now we’ve cleared that up. Let’s take a look at the riders with the most world titles in history. Stefan Everts has ten to his name – incredible and will take some beating in the future. Antonio Cairoli give it a good go but came up just short with nine world titles.
Joel Robert who is an idol for so many in Belgium and sadly passed away back in 2001 is currently third with six world titles. He also won all his titles and GP overalls in the same class (250cc) which is quite unique. He has some top talent breathing down his neck – most notably Tim Gajser who has five world titles along with Jeffrey Herlings, Joel Smets, Eric Geboers, Roger De Coster and Georges Jobe. Out of these Gajser and Herlings are still racing but with Herlings missing the start of the 2025 season it means Gajser has the most chance of getting to six first – but it is never easy.
There are actually four riders with four world titles but Jorge Prado makes the top ten due to having more GP overall wins than them. Heikki Mikkola, Torsten Hallman and Harry Everts are the other three riders who have four world titles.
World titles:
In terms of GP overall wins, Jeffrey Herlings sits out in front with 107 and he’s not done yet. He hopes to race in 2026 and will only miss the first three or four rounds this year so look out for him wanting to add plenty more GP overall wins to his name – it’ll be tough for anyone to get close to that in the future but records and there to be broken. It is such a shame he picked up a lot of injuries otherwise he’d certainly have more than five world titles to his name.
The great Stefan Everts was the first rider in history to win more than 100 GP overalls in the end walking away with 101 GP wins. Cairoli couldn’t quite get to the 100 mark but 94 with 70 coming in MXGP is incredible.
Tim Gajser is currently sixth but the 28 year old is ‘only’ eight behind Joel Smets so will have a good shot at ending up fourth in the list.
Overall wins:
To keep things relevant heading into the new season we also had a look at the current GP riders overall GP wins. There’s no surprise to see Herlings lead the way over Tim Gajser. Jago Geerts despite not winning a world title sits third in GP wins – how has he not won a world title?!
Romain Febvre who has one MXGP title sits fourth with Jeremy Seewer rounding out the top five.
Current GP riders – overall wins:
