Aldeguer Joins the Winners' Club

A new premier-class race winner emerged at Mandalika in Indonesia, while the newly crowned seven-time premier-class champion had his dream season cut short early

- Report: Gaurav Davare

EVEN THOUGH THE FIGHT for the 2025 MotoGP rider's title is mathematically done and dusted, there was a lot of racing left to run and many other important battles left to be resolved. All that was resumed at the 2025 MotoGP Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika.

It was quite a jumbled-up grid in qualifying as Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) put in a dominant pole-position lap, ahead of Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Racing) in second place and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) in third position. The newly crowned seven-time champion, Marc Márquez (Ducati Lenovo Team), was a distant ninth, his worst of the season, and his teammate Francesco Bagnaia's struggles made an ugly return, qualifying all the way down in 16th position.

Sprint

JUST AS QUALIFYING WAS CHAOTIC, the Sprint was equally so as Bezzecchi had a bad start and dropped into the midfield pack, while Aldeguer inherited that lead. Marc Márquez's forgettable weekend continued as contact with Alex Rins (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) at Turn 10 sent them both off wide, resulting in a long-lap penalty for the former, thus dropping him down to 13th, before recovering to sixth position in the end. Another rider making a strong recovery was Bezzecchi, who sliced his way through the field and overcame a significant gap over race leader Aldeguer to pass him on the final lap and take the Sprint win. Following the pair home was Raul Fernandez in third place.

Race