Aprilia MotoGP rider Marco Bezzecchi claimed a surprisingly straightforward victory in the Portuguese Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the 2025 season.
It was Bezzecchi's second and Aprilia's third grand prix win of the season, to go with three sprint wins for both, and means he is all but certain to finish third in the standings behind the Marquez brothers - his rival for the spot Pecco Bagnaia crashing from fourth place.
There was no repeat of Saturday's exhilarating sprint duel as, after again keeping the lead off the line, Bezzecchi set about controlling the race instead of coming under pressure behind.
Pedro Acosta and Alex Marquez again settled into the places behind him, and once Marquez cleared Acosta on the second lap it looked like he could put Bezzecchi under pressure - but such aspirations didn't last too long, and by halfway Bezzecchi's lead was approaching the two-second mark.
It grew from there until Bezzecchi eased off in the final laps, and Marquez even had to manage the gap to Acosta in the final few laps, staying ahead by 0.6s at the finish.
After a disappointing sprint, in which he ran fifth early and went backwards, Bagnaia actually made early progress from fifth by overtaking Fabio Quartararo - but then crashed out.
Another Sunday crash from @PeccoBagnaia 💥😱
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 9, 2025
This may put a massive dent on his chances to finish 3rd in the Championship ⚠️ #PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/jdZ021RtjD
He now trails third-placed Bezzecchi by 35 points in the standings, with only 37 available at Valencia next weekend.
Bagnaia's crash meant Fermin Aldeguer took fourth place instead, after effectively moving Brad Binder out of the way with a very aggressive Turn 5 move that yielded no action from the stewards, then picking off Quartararo.
A Turn 5 error from Quartararo then gave Binder a position back, the duo finishing in that order in fifth and sixth respectively.
It was a surprisingly rough race for Honda, which lost Joan Mir's bike to a yet-unspecified technical issue and lost ground with Johann Zarco late on, the LCR man having chased after compatriot Quartararo for fifth at first yet ending up overtaken by Ai Ogura and Fabio Di Giannantonio in quick succession in the closing laps to end up only ninth.
The relatively paltry yield in the manufacturers' standings means Honda is still not guaranteed to move up to Rank C concessions from Rank D, so Valencia results will determine whether it retains certain testing allowances and the freedom to upgrade its engine in-season next year.
Franco Morbidelli exited the race on the opening lap after struggling to get the bike stopped in the pack into Turn 5, running out wide, then getting bumped off the Ducati as he tried to rejoin the racing line and met Pol Espargaro's KTM. Espargaro went on to finish 10th.
That same Turn 5 kerfuffle resulted in Enea Bastianini's exit from contention, as Ogura used the chaos to dive down the inside and ended up cutting across Bastianini, causing damage that led to a reported steering blockage. He subsequently rejoined the race three laps down, riding around behind the podium battle.
Champion Marc Marquez's injury stand-in Nicolo Bulega was pursuing home hero Miguel Oliveira for 14th when he made a mistake at Turn 5, which forced him to settle for a single point for 15th from his grand prix debut.
Results
1 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia)
2 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +2.583s
3 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +3.188s
4 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +12.860s
5 Brad Binder (KTM) +16.327s
6 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +18.442s
7 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +19.255s
8 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +20.612s
9 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +21.040s
10 Pol Espargaro (Tech3 KTM) +26.517s
11 Luca Marini (Honda) +28.226s
12 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +29.717s
13 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +30.372s
14 Miguel Oliveira (Pramac Yamaha) +31.621s
15 Nicolo Bulega (Ducati) +32.072s
16 Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) +39.869s
17 Somkiat Chantra (LCR Honda) +1m01.999s
18 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +2 laps
DNF Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati)
DNF Joan Mir (Honda)
DNF Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati)
