BEZZECCHI DOMINATES PORTIMÃO FROM START TO FINISH
Marco Bezzecchi delivered a spotless race from the first lap to the last at Portimão. He started in front, stayed in front, and won the Portuguese GP without ever being challenged. This victory also puts him safely ahead in the fight for third place in the Championship. He now needs only a few points in Valencia to secure it.
Right behind him, Alex Marquez spent most of the race holding off a late push from Pedro Acosta. The podium changed compared to Saturday’s Sprint, but the top three were the same riders.
Acosta launched very well at the start, but Bezzecchi kept control and took the lead into the first corner. Alex Marquez also repeated his fast Sprint start and moved up to third. Behind them, Franco Morbidelli got squeezed at Turn 5 but walked away fine from the incident. His weekend had already been difficult. At the end of Lap 2, Joan Mir, who had finished third in Sepang, had to retire with a technical problem.
Francesco Bagnaia was running fourth, followed by Fabio Quartararo. The Frenchman was riding strongly again, but he had pressure from Brad Binder. Binder himself was being attacked by rookie Fermín Aldeguer, who made an aggressive move at Turn 5 and took fifth place from him. Aldeguer then passed Quartararo and moved into fourth after Bagnaia crashed out on Lap 11. It was Bagnaia’s fourth straight Sunday DNF, a big blow to his chances of finishing third in the standings.
At the front, Bezzecchi slowly pulled away from the rest. By Lap 15 he had a 2.2-second lead over Alex Marquez. Acosta was another 2.4 seconds behind but had a comfortable cushion over Aldeguer and Binder.
The best fight on track was for sixth place, where Quartararo defended well against Johann Zarco and Ai Ogura. Zarco later lost pace, letting Ogura take seventh while Fabio Di Giannantonio moved up to eighth.
With four laps to go, Acosta suddenly found more speed and began closing in on Marquez, cutting the gap down to one second with two laps left. Marquez was struggling, but he managed to respond on the final lap and keep Acosta behind him.
In the end, nobody could match Bezzecchi. He won from start to finish, becoming the sixth different winner in the last six Grands Prix and giving Aprilia its third win of 2025, a new record for the team. Marquez finished second, Acosta third.
Aldeguer kept hold of fourth, Binder took fifth, and Quartararo ended in sixth, his best Portuguese GP result since 2022. Ogura’s seventh place gave him back-to-back top tens for the first time since early in the season. Di Giannantonio stayed ahead of Zarco for eighth, and Pol Espargaró completed the top ten.
Now the paddock heads to Valencia for the long-awaited season finale, where the last battles of the year will be settled.
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