Fernandez clinches maiden win in thrilling Grand Prix

Raul Fernandez has taken a maiden MotoGP™ win for himself and his Trackhouse Racing team in the MotoGP™ race at the Liqui Moly Australian Grand Prix  2025.

Two weeks after Fernandez had to sit and watch his fellow Spaniard Fermin Aldeguer take his first MotoGP™ win in Indonesia, Fernandez rode a metronomic race, clicking off fast laps almost at will to take his breakthrough victory in his 76th MotoGP™ Grand Prix™ start.

Fernandez’s cause was aided by Marco Bezzecchi, who was forced to serve two Long Lap Penalties that dropped him from the lead to sixth. But Fernandez was focused and in spite of some close attention from Pedro Acosta and his KTM rocketship, he built a gap and gave the American-owned team its first win in MotoGP™.

“I cannot believe it,” said Fernandez, who won by 1.418s.

“I have been here for a long time, we found something. The team always believed in me. I had a good pace to the end, I tried to manage the rear tyre and it was very difficult. The last five laps, it was a super-long race for me.”

For the second straight race Acosta found himself in podium contention and for the second race in a row, he had to play a solid defensive role. This time it was the Gresini Ducati of Alex Marquez that was cast in the role of challenger, taking four laps to plot away around Acosta until he found a path to second place at Stoner Corner on lap 16.

Three laps later it was the turn of Fabio Di Giannantonio to take on Acosta, the noted tyre whisperer taking three laps to get into third place at MG Corner on lap 19. Di Giannantonio fought back at once and the VR46 Ducati left Acosta behind and chased down Marquez, taking second place with four laps left.

“This place is amazing, it's a fantastic island," Di Giannantonio said after taking his third MotoGP™ podium of the season.

“We need other races like this. The a bittersweet result of my career, we had the potential to win but I ruined it in Qualifying. But we keep going and never give up!”

It was a big race for Bezzecchi. From pole position he won the start handily and streaked away from the field, before he peeled to the outside at Miller Corner to take his first Long Lap Penalty on lap six. That dropped him to third place. Two laps later he did it again, this time dropping to sixth. The good news was that he had dropped only to sixth, and was less than three seconds behind new race leader Fernandez.

The bad news was that, while Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha was the bike immediately in front of him, so were two Ducatis, Marquez in what was now third place and Di Giannantonio. Both were quick on the straight and the Italian looked to have a lot of work to do.

On lap 12 Bezzecchi passed Quartararo on Gardner Straight, and he set about rounding up the fading Acosta with five laps to run. Then he set sail after Marquez, taking third place off him at MG Corner with a lap and a half to run. But by then Di Giannantonio was second and out of reach.

“It was a super tough race, with the penalty everything was more complicated,” Bezzecchi said after his 16th MotoGP™ podium finish.

“I tried to push at the beginning and I had a bit of a gap when I served the penalty. Now is the time to recover physically in time for Malaysia.”

Behind Marquez and Acosta came Luca Marini on the quickly-improving Honda, ahead of Alex Rins, who finished as the top Yamaha rider in the race. KTMs followed, with Brad Binder eighth ahead of Enea Bastianini and test rider Pol Espargaro.

Jack Miller was looking strong and running comfortably in the top six until his Pramac Yamaha got away from him and he fell, unhurt, at the ultra-fast Doohan Corner at the end of the main straight.

It was a better Sunday for Francesco Bagnaia than it was in his Saturday Sprint race, but not by much. He settled in 13th place and in spite of running much slower than the leaders, watched as Quartararo’s troubled Yamaha came back towards him. He looked good to finish 12th until he crashed at Siberia with four laps remaining.