Marco Bezzecchi led every lap from pole position at the Portuguese GP to claim his second victory of this season. The result also extended his advantage in the battle for third in the championship.
- Bezzecchi becomes sixth different winner in as many races
- Bagnaia suffers fourth consecutive DNF
- Acosta fifth in championship, just three points behind Bagnaia
Flawless performance from Bezzecchi
Factory Aprilia rider untouchable from start to finish
Starting from pole, Bezzecchi got a great launch and maintained his lead into Turn 1, with Pedro Acosta holding second ahead of Alex Marquez, who moved up to third. From there, the Italian was in a class of his own, steadily building a comfortable gap over the field.
Marquez made his move on lap 2, passing Acosta for second place. However, Bezzecchi was consistently quicker, and Alex – who had already sealed second in the championship a couple of weeks ago – simply didn’t have the pace to launch an attack for P1.
By lap 15, Bezzecchi’s lead stood at 2.2 seconds over Marquez, with Acosta another 2.4 seconds behind in third but holding a safe 6.4-second margin over Fermin Aldeguer in P4. Bezzecchi went on to take a comfortable win, all but guaranteeing third in the championship with just one race weekend left at Valencia next week.
Another nightmare weekend for Bagnaia
Fourth consecutive Sunday DNF for Pecco
Francesco Bagnaia’s difficult season continued at Portimao as he suffered his fourth consecutive DNF on race day. After qualifying eighth, Bagnaia climbed quickly to P4 before crashing out on Lap 11. The DNF makes it near impossible for him to finish third in the championship, with the gap to Bezzecchi now at 35 points.
Behind the top three, Aldeguer held on for fourth place ahead of Brad Binder, who took his third top-six finish of the season. Fabio Quartararo delivered another strong performance to finish sixth, while Ai Ogura took seventh, Fabio Di Giannantonio held off Johann Zarco for eighth, and Pol Espargaro rounded out the top ten.
2025 MotoGP standings
Championship heads to Valencia for season finale next weekend
With the first two championship spots already secured by the Marquez brothers, Marc and Alex, the focus now shifts down the order. That said, Bezzecchi sits at 323 points, 35 points ahead of Pecco in fourth. With a possible 37 points available from the final round at Valencia, it would take a major stroke of luck (and wins on both Saturday and Sunday) for Pecco to reclaim third, which is highly unlikely.
What should worry him more is Pedro Acosta’s charge from behind, just three points adrift and clearly in better form. The MotoGP paddock now heads to Valencia for the season finale next weekend.
Unnatee Gidithuri
