The 16th round of the FIM Motocross World Championship couldn’t have started any better for Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe’s Glenn Coldenhoff, who dominated the qualifying race at his home grand prix, MXGP of The Netherlands.

Flying the flag for The Netherlands, Coldenhoff bought the grandstands to life when he pulled the holeshot and checked out for his first-ever MXGP qualifying race win.

Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Jeremy Van Horebeek, Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM’s Shaun Simpson and Team HRC’s dangerous duo of Gautier Paulin and Evgeny Bobryshev all went bar-to-bar for the runner-up.

Simpson was the first to drop out of the scrap when he ran hot up the inside of Van Horebeek, clipped him and went down. Van Horebeek was punted off line, which allowed Paulin to capitalize and go through into second.

Paulin then fronted the battle for second but Van Horebeek remained relentless on his mission and eventually pulled the trigger through the waves and made a pass.

Bobryshev, who had company in the form of Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Romain Febvre, put in a solid charge but burnt himself out in the process and ended up crawling home in sixth.

Meanwhile, Febvre kept Paulin honest and pushed him to the finish while Simpson mounted an impressive come back and rounded out the top five.

Husqvarna-mounted Australian duo Dean Ferris and Todd Waters put forward impressive performances, crossing the line eighth and ninth respectively.

With the drop of the MX2 gate it was only a matter of seconds before the crowd was on their feet as Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Davy Pootjes edged Wilvo Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Harri Kullas out for the holeshot.

Heading into turn two, Pootjes slammed the door on Kullas and gapped it briefly. A lap or so in, Pootjes hard work went up in flames when he high-sided and handed Kullas the lead. Kullas then took charge and that was that.

Standing Construct Yamaha Yamalube’s title contender Valentin Guillod crashed spectacularly out of fourth on lap two which was then mimicked by Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM’s Ben Watson.

Standing Construct Yamaha Yamalube’s Julien Lieber was the next to fall victim to the gnarly track after running third for half of the race while Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe’s Jeremy Seewer rounded out the list of fallen riders when he tucked the front end and fell from second with three laps to go.

Bad starts made life difficult for Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki’s Max Anstie and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pauls Jonass, but both managed to find their flow to finish inside the top three.

Jonass rounded out the top three, while Kemea Yamaha Yamalube’s Brent Van Doninck put his sand skills to good use for fourth while Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Thomas Covington was on his game today and finished fifth.

The FIM Veteran’s Motocross World Cup took place where Sweden’s Mats Nilsson edged out New Zealand’s Darryll King by one point for the overall while the defending champion Martin Zerava finished up third.

Click here for detailed results