Aldeguer takes dominant first MotoGP win, Marquez injured
MotoGP

Aldeguer takes dominant first MotoGP win, Marquez injured

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
4 min read

MotoGP rookie Fermin Aldeguer utterly dominated the Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika, after Marco Bezzecchi took down 2025 champion Marc Marquez on the opening lap in a crash that left Marquez with a collarbone injury.

The first-lap incident opened the door for Aldeguer to take his first grand prix win by seven seconds, with a heated battle for the podium unfolding way behind him instead.

Bezzecchi had won the sprint after slipping to eighth at the start, and would have looked to repeat here despite going backwards off the line again, this time to seventh.

But his comeback went awry at the very first move, with Bezzecchi trying to line up an unlikely Turn 7 move on Marquez up ahead - only for the door to immediately close and for Bezzecchi to tag the rear of Marquez's Ducati, sending both of them into the gravel.

Both riders headed to the medical centre in the aftermath, with Marquez in obvious right shoulder discomfort right after the crash.

"There is evidence of a break on the right shoulder, but we need a TAC to investigate deeper and understand if an operation is necessary or not," team manager Davide Tardozzi told MotoGP.com. 

Ducati, however, described it as a "right collarbone injury" - while confirming that Marquez would undergo further medical tests in Madrid.

The exit of the weekend's clear form man and the 2025 champion meant sudden opportunities for victory and podium - with a four-bike group forming initially out front.

This comprised Pedro Acosta, who led off the line, Luca Marini, Fermin Aldeguer and Raul Fernandez - after Fernandez overtook Alex Rins.

But the victory battle only held up for the first quarter of the race - with Aldeguer having first cleared Marini and then overtaken Acosta for the lead at Turn 10.

Acosta tried to strike back down the inside of Turn 1, but went wide enough for Aldeguer to cut him off on corner exit.

The following lap, the Ducati rookie was seven tenths of a second quicker in clean air, and the lead only continued to balloon from there until it stabilised later in the race, with Aldeguer just needing to check off the laps.

While he did that, the outlook in the battle for second chopped and changed, with Acosta securing an unlikely second place in the end.

The KTM rider was acting like a rolling roadblock for much of the race, first with Marini and Fernandez behind him - with Marini twice getting close to making an overtake stick, which would've likely meant a guaranteed podium for the Honda rider.

But Acosta held firm, and finally Marini's podium charge was compromised by Fernandez attacking at Turn 16 on lap 13, then trying again at the next corner - with contact sending them both wide. Marini then erred again at Turn 1 to drop to eighth place.

Suddenly, that meant new protagonists in the battle for the podium, namely Aldeguer's Gresini team-mate Alex Marquez - who had bided his time - and Yamaha rider Alex Rins.

Rins and team-mate Fabio Quartararo ran the soft rear tyre instead of the field's preferred choice of the medium, both riders feeling the medium was too difficult to warm up for the Yamaha.

At one point Rins even cleared Acosta for second, but his soft rear didn't hold up in the end, and he went backwards through the field.

Instead, the younger Marquez overtook Acosta - only for the KTM rider to suddenly unleash the pace he'd been keeping in reserve and get the position back at the very end.

With the group behind Acosta up to 10 rivals at one point with 10 laps to go, team-mate Brad Binder fought through the pack from 15th on the grid to claim fourth, with Marini recovering to fifth ahead of Fernandez and Quartararo.

VR46 duo Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the top nine - both just three seconds back from Acosta - while a fading Rins settled for 10th.

Only 14 riders out of the 19 finished the race and one of them, Jack Miller, did so after remounting following a crash.

There was a race-ending crash for Honda rider Joan Mir and a retirement for Tech3 KTM's Enea Bastianini, and also a fall to conclude a potential career-worst weekend for Pecco Bagnaia.

The two-time champion, coming off the Motegi double win, had been shockingly slow in the sprint and was that way again here, running in last place when he hit the deck on the eighth lap.

Results

1 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati)
2 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +6.987s
3 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +7.896s
4 Brad Binder (KTM) +8.901s
5 Luca Marini (Honda) +9.129s
6 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +9.709s
7 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +9.894s
8 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +10.087s
9 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +10.350s
10 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +13.223s
11 Miguel Oliveira (Pramac Yamaha) +19.769s
12 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +27.597s
13 Somkiat Chantra (LCR Honda) +48.035s
14 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +55.540s
DNF Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM)
DNF Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati)
DNF Joan Mir (Honda)
DNF Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia)
DNF Marc Marquez (Ducati)

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