DANIELA GUILLEN’S FIRST WMX WORLD TITLE

Daniela Guillen arrived at Hidden Valley with a six-point buffer over six-time World Champion, Kiara Fontanesi, and left the Darwin track 24 points clear with a perfect 1-1 scorecard – settling the 2026 WMX World Championship on Australian red clay.

Six-time World Champion, Kiara Fontanesi, rocked up in Darwin just six points off the WMX title lead – and on reputation alone, you’d have fancied the Italian to find a way. Not this time. Daniela Guillen answered with a perfect 1-1 on Hidden Valley’s red clay to settle it herself, handing Spain a new World Champion and giving the Darwin crowd a title decider well worth the trip – with Aussie Emma Milesevic snaring 10th in race 2 for good measure.

Here’s the full race report from MXGP promoter, Infront Moto Racing…

DARWIN (Australia) September 20, 2026: Some titles are handed over, others have to be torn from the hands of your rivals. At Hidden Valley, in the final round of the 2026 FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship at the MXGP of Australia, presented by Sitzler, RFME Spain National Team’s Daniela Guillen did it the hard way and the beautiful way at the same time, winning both races to seal the first World Title of her career.

Guillen arrived in the Top End with just six points in hand over six-time World Champion, Fonta Racing’s Kiara Fontanesi. She leaves it 24 points clear, with a 1-1, the fastest lap in both races and a gold medal around her neck. De Baets-AIT Yamaha supported team’s Lotte Van Drunen took second overall with 2-3, while Dixon Racing Team Kawasaki’s Courtney Duncan completed the Grand Prix podium with 3-4.

RACE 1 – GUILLEN TURNS THE SCREW

Race 1 on Saturday was played out under enormous pressure. Usual fast starter, JK Racing Yamaha’s Nellie Fransson led the field up the hill, with Fontanesi tucked in behind and Guillen third, while American Lachlan Turner went down at the top of the hill in turn three and had to rejoin near the back. Guillen wasted no time. The Spaniard went through on Fontanesi and, a couple of corners later, on Fransson, grabbing the lead before the end of the opening lap. From there, she had clear track and she used it.

Fontanesi moved into second on lap two and for much of the race the Italian kept the damage in the championship limited. But the race turned on its head in the closing laps. Van Drunen had been charging through the field with Duncan right on her wheel, and the pair closed onto the back of Fontanesi. With two laps to go, Van Drunen found her way into second and Duncan followed her through for third, surviving a heart-stopping moment in which she went across the front of the bike and somehow stayed on. The Italian had no reply.

Guillen crossed the line 4.776 seconds clear of Van Drunen, with Duncan third and Fontanesi fourth. In the space of 12 laps, a six-point margin had become 13. Shana Van der Vlist took fifth ahead of Lucy Barker and Alexandra Massury, while Turner recovered from her first-lap crash to eighth. Fransson faded to ninth, and Amandine Verstappen completed the top ten.

RACE 2 – FINISHING THE JOB

If Saturday tightened Guillen’s grip on the title, Sunday’s race 2 was about finishing the job, and she did it the way champions do. Turner made amends with a flying start, leading into turn three at the top of the hill ahead of Duncan and Fransson, with Guillen fourth in the early exchanges. Then the championship swung for good. Fontanesi, still chasing a seventh world crown, tipped over on the opening lap and remounted in twelfth. She fought back to seventh, but by then the title was out of reach.

Guillen, meanwhile, went hunting. She was past Fransson into third on the opening lap, then kept the pressure on Duncan until the New Zealander made a mistake on lap seven and opened the door to second. By then Turner was around six seconds clear, but Guillen reeled her in lap after lap, and on lap nine she swept into the lead. Once in front, she pulled away to win by 2.841 seconds, setting the fastest lap of the race along the way with a 1:47.229. No calculating, no cruising: a champion winning the title by attacking.

Turner’s second place capped a superb weekend of redemption for the American. Van Drunen took third, while Duncan, on course for a top three until a stall on the penultimate lap let the Dutchwoman by, settled for fourth. Barker fought back from a fall to take fifth, enough to claim fifth in the championship, with Van der Vlist a non-starter in race 2 due to a fall in the opening sighting laps that left her handlebar damaged. Fransson was sixth, Fontanesi seventh, Verstappen eighth, Massury ninth and home hero Emma Milesevic tenth.

A LONG TIME COMING

For Daniela Guillen, this one has been a long time coming. After several seasons of coming agonisingly close, of watching the gold medal go to someone else, the Spaniard put together the most complete campaign of her career: five race wins, three Overall victories and a top-three finish in every one of the ten races on the calendar. The fight with Fontanesi was relentless all year. The Italian even took the red plate from her in Great Britain, but Guillen snatched it back in Arnhem and never let go again.

Fontanesi’s wait for a seventh title goes on after a season she described as amazing until a painful final two rounds, while Van Drunen hands over her crown after a difficult year, lifted by victory at her home Grand Prix in Arnhem and a podium in the finale. Tonight in Darwin, though, there is only one story. Years of work, sacrifice and belief have finally paid off. Spain has a new World Champion, and WMX has a new name on its roll of honour: Daniela Guillen.

RIDER QUOTES

Daniela Guillen: “First of all, I want to say thank you to my team, RFME, Last Lap, also all my family, my sister, my coach, my trainer, all the people that helped me, because it’s possible thank to them for helping me a lot. I’m really happy. I’m so happy also with racing this weekend because I started a little bit off, but then I pushed and I won. I think other riders don’t push, but I wanted to push and get the win here in Australia, it was important, so now I am really happy.”

Kiara Fontanesi: “It has been the worst weekend ever. I don’t really understand what is going on. Yesterday I felt very bad physically during the race and I couldn’t ride and breathe and move anymore. I was fit to ride today, but I felt very bad on the track and I was slipping everywhere until I crashed. Then it was just very hard to come back, and also I lost the motivation to come back when I knew it was not possible anymore for the title. It’s a pity that I couldn’t really fight. Until this weekend it has been an amazing season. I have had so many good races, basically everything was super good, but with problems in the last two rounds, it was almost impossible to fight for the championship. Congratulations to Daniela. She deserved the title, she rode very well, and it was amazing to have such a great battle with her this year.”

Lotte Van Drunen: “It was definitely not my season. Some bad luck, I would say, as well. Not really riding like myself, sometimes being hard on training days as well. But I’ll be working really, really hard this winter and I’ll be back next year. Definitely looking forward to that.”

WMX CLASSIFICATIONS

WMX RACE 1 – TOP 10

1. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GASGAS), 24:19.518; 2. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, Yamaha), +0:04.776; 3. Courtney Duncan (NZL, Kawasaki), +0:07.571; 4. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GASGAS), +0:24.899; 5. Shana Van der Vlist (NED, Yamaha), +0:27.811; 6. Lucy Barker (GBR, KTM), +0:39.093; 7. Alexandra Massury (GER, KTM), +0:56.827; 8. Lachlan Turner (USA, Yamaha), +0:58.187; 9. Nellie Fransson (SWE, Yamaha), +1:08.288; 10. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, Yamaha), +1:10.309.

WMX RACE 2 – TOP 10

1. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GASGAS), 23:53.702; 2. Lachlan Turner (USA, Yamaha), +0:02.841; 3. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, Yamaha), +0:19.423; 4. Courtney Duncan (NZL, Kawasaki), +0:26.688; 5. Lucy Barker (GBR, KTM), +1:05.274; 6. Nellie Fransson (SWE, Yamaha), +1:14.222; 7. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GASGAS), +1:32.730; 8. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, Yamaha), +1:36.066; 9. Alexandra Massury (GER, KTM), +1:40.853; 10. Emma Milesevic (AUS, Yamaha), +1:44.578.

WMX GP OVERALL – TOP 10

1. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 50 points; 2. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, YAM), 42 p.; 3. Courtney Duncan (NZL, KAW), 38 p.; 4. Lachlan Turner (USA, YAM), 35 p.; 5. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 32 p.; 6. Lucy Barker (GBR, KTM), 31 p.; 7. Nellie Fransson (SWE, YAM), 27 p.; 8. Alexandra Massury (GER, KTM), 26 p.; 9. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, YAM), 24 p.; 10. Emma Milesevic (AUS, YAM), 21 p.

WMX FINAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP – TOP 10

1. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 233 points; 2. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 209 p.; 3. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, YAM), 177 p.; 4. Courtney Duncan (NZL, KAW), 167 p.; 5. Lucy Barker (GBR, KTM), 153 p.; 6. Shana Van der Vlist (NED, YAM), 141 p.; 7. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, YAM), 133 p.; 8. Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), 116 p.; 9. Nellie Fransson (SWE, YAM), 99 p.; 10. Alexandra Massury (GER, KTM), 80 p.

WMX FINAL MANUFACTURERS CLASSIFICATION

1. GASGAS, 244 points; 2. Yamaha, 201 p.; 3. Kawasaki, 167 p.; 4. KTM, 163 p.; 5. Honda, 119 p.; 6. Husqvarna, 83 p.; 7. TM Moto, 57 p.; 8. Triumph, 32 p.