Adamo has ‘the puzzle’ to conquer MX2 again in 2025
Red Bull KTM’s Andrea Adamo is currently the most prolific MX2 rider for moto and GP wins in 2025. A second title looms?
By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Jordi Wheeler.
Andrea Adamo’s 2023 MX2 world title was won on the back of consistency. The Italian conquered the category thanks to 11 podium finishes from 19 rounds, and only two victories. Adamo’s lack of race-winning prolificacy has been a small stick which with fans have prodded the 21-year-old, especially after a tough title defence in 2024 when he posted just two moto triumphs from forty.
Now, things have changed. MXGP entered the second half of 2025 in Latvia last weekend and while Adamo laboured to 10th overall due to a foot he injured in Saturday’s qualification heat, he had owned the previous GP in Germany. Adamo has managed to take figurative steps to both boost his competitiveness once more with the KTM 250 SX-F but also quieten the ‘noise’ that he’s solely a percentage player. He won in Arco di Trento for the second time (his fourth career spoils in his fifth MX2 season) but then also in France, Portugal as well as Germany to again take command of the red plate after his 1-3 in Teutschenthal last Sunday.
MX2 has provided five winners and nine different podiumees in 2025. Three riders are separated by 37 points at the top of the table and Adamo, in P2, is a far more proactive and fiery presence.
“Motocross is one of the toughest sports out there because you need so many things: a bike that needs to be set, [you] to be fit, you need to be fast, to be smart and be with the head completely free,” he explained of his resurgence this term. “Of course, last year I was missing some pieces of the puzzle and when that happens the reality is the level is so high. I think the 250s are underrated because sometimes we do motos that push full-gas from the first until the last lap. In Ernee, I don’t know if many people saw, but we were twenty seconds faster than MXGP in race two. That’s pretty crazy. Thibault Benistant in P3 was still faster than Romain Febvre who won the moto.”
Adamo couldn’t find the right set-up, starts and, subsequently, confidence level in 2024. In 2025, in contrast, he has already doubled his moto tally from the previous year and heads MX2 for GP victorieswhile co-leading for Saturday Qualification heat success and motos.
“You need to have everything and this year I have put everything together,” he admitted at Teutschenthal. “I’ve said many times; I don’t care to win ten-fifteen GPs: you need to win the title and if one GP win is enough then good. I will try to stay mistake-free and ride my races and when I think I can attack then I will and when not, then not! That’s what I’ll do all year.”
Adamo has not only taken a chequered flag in three of the last five rounds but his seven podiums have arrived in the last nine fixtures. He had seized on the recent injury trouble for reigning champion Kay de Wolf, and Simon Laengenfelder’s slight wavering results (only once has German has finished on the box for two races in a row). De Wolf has been solid and his nine trophies from eleven (the highest amount in MX2 thus far) testify to his regularity but the Dutchman is also watching former teammate and rival Lucas Coenen light-up the MXGP class in his rookie term and is one of the KTM group riders who will be seeking clarification on his plans for 2026.
MX2 has been won back-to-back only three times since the category’s inception 21 years ago: by Marvin Musquin in 2009 and 2010, Jeffrey Herlings in 2012 and 2013 and Jorge Prado in 2018 and 2019 all with a KTM 250 SX-F.
