Engine failures and Ducati-free front row

There was a lot to see at the Liqui Moly Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix 2025 at Phillip Island, and with the performances of the Aussie riders, it would have been easy to miss some of what happened...

On Saturday morning Luca Marini had an engine failure on the main straight, right in front of Pedro Acosta’s KTM. It was the second day in a row that a Honda RC213V has blown up, after Joan Mir did just that on Friday. As part of MotoGP’s concessions, the team got to replace the units without any penalties.

It has been a long time since Jack Miller qualified on the front row of the grid – in fact, the gap between Miller's previous front row start at the 2022 MotoGP™ season finale in Valencia, where he qualified third, to this weekend’s was 749 days.

Saturday was also the first time in 98 GPs that there is no Ducati on the front row of the grid. Not only was it a new pole sitter at Phillip Island, but the whole front row from the 2024 race was missing. A year ago the Ducatis of Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez lined up alongside Aprilia’s Maverick Viñales and now, all three Spaniards are at home recovering from injuries.

Fermin Aldeguer and Pol Espargaro could not be separated in Qualifying – literally. The rising star on the Gresini Ducati and the veteran KTM test rider, substituting for Viñales, both set Qualifying times of 1m26.995s. Aldeguer got to claim seventh place on the grid because his second-fastest lap was better than Espargaro’s, 1m27.093s to 1m27.323s.

One place where Espargaro had it over Aldeguer – and everyone else – was on the Gardner Straight. His Tech3 KTM RC16 managed 354.1km/h down the chute, nearly 5km/h faster than anyone else and way clear of Aldeguer’s 340.7km/h. The only bike slower than Aldeguer’s was… Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha, on 339.6km/h.