Trackhouse MotoGP rider Raul Fernandez took a first-ever premier-class win by controlling the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island after Aprilia stablemate Marco Bezzecchi served his penalty from the lead.
A sprint podium finisher, Fernandez had never finished higher than fifth in a grand prix - and never even logged a lap in the top three.
But with the Aprilia RS-GP on song at Phillip Island, he capitalised on Bezzecchi's penalty to win comfortably - scoring a first win not just for himself but for American outfit Trackhouse, which joined MotoGP last year.
Bezzecchi took the lead off the line this time, with poleman Fabio Quartararo going backwards again, and stretched out an early advantage as Fernandez and Pedro Acosta battled for second place behind him.
Acosta got past Fernandez at the start of the third lap, but Fernandez crucially got back ahead the following tour, so was in position to inherit the lead when Bezzecchi served the first of his long-lap penalties - assessed for his collision with Marc Marquez at Mandalika that left Marquez injured and missing Phillip Island - on lap five.
The long lap penalty loop, at Turn 4, is around a two-second time loss here, and Bezzecchi filtered out in third place. He served his second sanction two laps later, coming out in sixth.
Soon after Fernandez went a second clear for the first time and over the next few laps he really started to press his advantage over Acosta.
By the time Alex Marquez attacked Acosta for second, the KTM rider fighting it off into Turn 1, Fernandez was two and a half seconds clear with 12 laps left to run.
Acosta immediately erred at Turn 3 to let Marquez through, but Fernandez's lead was up to three seconds now - and Marquez just could not make meaningful inroads.
VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio, something of a Phillip Island specialist, had more success when he went past Marquez on lap 23 of 27, whittling the gap to the leader down to 1.4s as Fernandez rolled off at the end - but it never looked like a victory battle had any chance of breaking out.
Bezzecchi bided his time after the second penalty, getting past Quartararo on lap 11, then Acosta on lap 22, then finally Marquez on the penultimate lap for the final spot of the podium.
But Marquez, 97 points clear of third place in the standings, is now all but certain to finish runner-up in the 2025 standings behind his brother Marc.
Acosta was hanging on as he completed the top five, just 0.040s ahead of Luca Marini, who was the only Honda rider in the points in sixth.
Marini's factory team-mate Joan Mir had crashed out from 12th, while LCR Honda rider Johann Zarco fell earlier.
Though pole-to-victory was clearly never realistic, Quartararo should have had a decent points day - but he was getting routinely mugged off on the main straight by rival bikes lap after lap and ultimately had no real race pace, so went backwards just as his team-mate Alex Rins (who had qualified only 11th) went forwards.
With Jack Miller crashing out from fifth at Siberia early on, Rins had a clear run to finishing as top Yamaha in seventh, coming out on top in a battle with a gaggle of KTMs.
Both Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini worked past their fellow KTM rider, tester Pol Espargaro, late on to finish eighth and ninth respectively, while Espargaro just narrowly beat Quartararo to 10th.
Indonesian Grand Prix winner Fermin Aldeguer was 11th in the early going, then made some progress to get into the top 10, then went badly backwards late on to limp home in 14th.
💔 @PeccoBagnaia's Sunday has just gone from bad to worse #AustralianGP 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/ZRZ83o3sQN
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 19, 2025
But it was still a better race for him than Pecco Bagnaia, who also went backwards initially - and had climbed back to 12th, having just got ahead of Quartararo, when he suddenly tumbled out of the grand prix.
Bezzecchi has now jumped eight points ahead of Bagnaia in the battle for third in the standings.
Results
1 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia)
2 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati)
3 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia)
4 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati)
5 Pedro Acosta (KTM)
6 Luca Marini (Honda)
7 Alex Rins (Yamaha)
8 Brad Binder (KTM)
9 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM)
10 Pol Espargaro (Tech3 KTM)
11 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha)
12 Miguel Oliveira (Pramac Yamaha)
13 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia)
14 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati)
15 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati)
16 Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia)
17 Somkiat Chantra (LCR Honda)
18 Michele Pirro (Ducati)
DNF Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati)
DNF Joan Mir (Honda)
DNF Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha)
DNF Johann Zarco (LCR Honda)