Race report

MotoGP Indonesian GP: Marco Bezzecchi overcomes horror start to win sprint

The Italian calmly carved through the field to claim arguably the most exciting sprint race of the year

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi scored a sensational MotoGP sprint victory at Mandalika after fighting his way back from a dreadful start.

The class of the field all weekend, Bezzecchi made life difficult for himself when he battled to get off the line from pole position. He was down in eighth place midway through the first lap as Fermin Aldeguer grabbed the early lead from Pedro Acosta and Trackhouse Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez.

While Bezzecchi began to work his way back to the sharp end of the field, Acosta could only hang on in second until lap five, when he dropped the factory KTM into the gravel trap.

Bezzecchi battled for some time to get past Luca Marini (Honda) for fourth place, only clearing his countryman at the same moment Acosta fell. That’s when Bezzecchi, now suddenly third, really got the hammer down and immediately reeled off a pair of fastest laps.

He hauled in Fernandez quickly enough, passing him on lap eight. That left him five laps in which to catch and pass Aldeguer, who had a lead of more than two seconds at that point.

Fermin Aldeguer, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Robertus Pudyanto / Getty Images

This proved no problem for Bezzecchi, who calmly hunted down the Gresini Ducati and barged past him at Turn 10 on the final lap. Aldeguer made a spirited attempt to fight back at the next corner, but the more experienced Bezzecchi was able to hold his new lead to the flag.

Fernandez completed a solid ride to take a podium ahead of Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and the factory Hondas of Joan Mir and Marini. The latter, however, was given an eight-second penalty for low tyre pressures after the race, which dropped him out of the points.

That promoted factory Ducati rider Marc Marquez into sixth place. The new world champion, who has struggled for pace all weekend, did show some fight later in the race as he battled with the VR46 Ducati pair of Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio, eventually winning the scrap.

Marc's team-mate Francesco Bagnaia was back in familiar 2025 territory. He was woefully off the pace and came home last of the finishers, almost 30 seconds after Bezzecchi.

Despite the factory Ducati team having one of its worst outings of the season on Saturday, the 2025 teams' championship is now in the bag for the squad officially known as Ducati Lenovo Team.

MotoGP Indonesian GP - Sprint results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	13	19'37.047				12
2	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	13	+0.157 19'37.204	0.157			9
3	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	13	+4.062 19'41.109	3.905			7
4	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	13	+5.832 19'42.879	1.770			6
5	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	13	+8.759 19'45.806	2.927			5
6	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	13	+9.621 19'46.668	0.862			4
7	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	13	+9.772 19'46.819	0.151			3
8	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	13	+11.980 19'49.027	2.208			2
9	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	13	+12.096 19'49.143	0.116			1
10	M. Oliveira Pramac Racing	88	Yamaha	13	+12.988 19'50.035	0.892
11	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	13	+13.312 19'50.359	0.324
12	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	13	+15.905 19'52.952	2.593
13	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	13	+16.226 19'53.273	0.321
14	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	13	+29.393 20'06.440	13.167
dnf	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	12	+1 Lap 18'32.558	1 Lap		Retirement
dnf	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	9	+4 Laps 15'12.252	3 Laps		Retirement
dnf	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	6	+7 Laps 9'42.268	3 Laps		Retirement
dnf	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	2	+11 Laps 4'23.612	4 Laps		Retirement
dnf	S. Chantra Team LCR	35	Honda	0	+13 Laps 1'10.952	2 Laps		Retirement
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