MotoGP San Marino GP: Marquez outduels Bezzecchi for 11th win of 2025

Ducati star Marc Marquez emerged on top in a tense duel with the Aprilia of Marco Bezzecchi to clinch his 11th victory of the 2025 MotoGP season at the San Marino Grand Prix.

Marquez passed Bezzecchi on lap 12 of 26 and then held off the sprint race winner to take the chequered flag by 0.6s. 

With Alex Marquez only finishing third, the older Marquez now has a strong chance of wrapping up his seventh premier class title at the next round in Japan on 26-28 September.

At the start of the race, Bezzecchi pulled away cleanly from pole position, while championship leader Marquez once again made a rapid launch to snatch second place from his brother Alex Marquez into Turn 1.

Marc Marquez kept the pressure up on polesitter Bezzecchi for the remainder of the opening lap, but the two soon settled into a rhythm, with Alex Marquez also following them closely behind them in third.

It wasn’t until lap 11 that the battle for victory reignited, as Marc Marquez renewed his attack on the Aprilia rider.

On the following lap, Bezzecchi cracked under pressure and ran wide at Turn 8, allowing Marquez to come through and claim the lead for the first time.

However, the Spaniard was unable to check out at the front after passing Bezzecchi, with the Italian rider keeping him within striking distance.

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team (Photo by: Andreas Solaro / AFP via Getty Images)

With four laps to run, Marquez appeared to break away from the Italian, pulling out an advantage of 0.6s at the front. However, Bezzecchi immediately responded with the fastest lap of the race, bringing the gap down to 0.3s.

Bezzecchi lowered his own benchmark on the penultimate lap of the race, but Marquez held firm and increased his advantage on the final tour to end another weekend on the top step of the podium. 

Alex Marquez couldn’t keep up with the leading duo and dropped more than seven seconds behind them at the finish, but still came away with his ninth podium of the season.

VR46 duo Franco Morbidelli and Fabio di Giannantonio enjoyed a strong showing in front of their home crowd, finishing fourth and fifth respectively after overtaking the factory Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo in the middle of the race.

Quartararo eventually tumbled to eighth place having started on the front row, dropping behind the Gresini Ducati of Fermin Aldeguer and the top Honda of Luca Marini.

Pramac rider Miguel Oliveira equalled his best result of the season in ninth, while Brad Binder brought the sole-surviving KTM to 10th place.

Reigning champion Jorge Martin broke down on the sighting lap and had to dash to the pitlane to jump on his second bike. Although permitted to take his original starting position, a new rule introduced following this year’s British Grand Prix meant he had to serve a double long lap penalty, leaving him 13th at the finish.

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images)

KTM young gun Pedro Acosta made a stunning charge in the opening laps to rise from ninth on the grid to fourth place, only for a technical issue on lap 8 to send him out of the race. Marshals were later seen retrieving a chain from the track, suggesting his retirement was caused by the same issue that affected his team-mate Binder earlier in the weekend.

Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia retired a lap later Acosta’s exit, losing control of his bike in the middle of Turn 4 while running in eighth place. It marked a premature end to a nightmare weekend for the two-time MotoGP champion, who also failed to score points in Saturday’s sprint.

Both Joan Mir and Johann Zarco went down at Turn 4 on the opening lap in an incident not caught on camera. While HRC rider Mir, who missed Saturday’s action due to neck pain, retired immediately, Zarco remounted on his LCR Honda, finishing the race in 16th and last.

MotoGP San Marino GP - Race results:

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Rider	#		Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93		Ducati	27	41'20.898				25
2	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72		Aprilia	27	+0.568 41'21.466	0.568			20
3	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73		Ducati	27	+7.734 41'28.632	7.166			16
4	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21		Ducati	27	+10.379 41'31.277	2.645			13
5	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49		Ducati	27	+11.330 41'32.228	0.951			11
6	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54		Ducati	27	+16.069 41'36.967	4.739			10
7	L. Marini Honda HRC	10		Honda	27	+17.965 41'38.863	1.896			9
8	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20		Yamaha	27	+20.964 41'41.862	2.999			8
9	M. Oliveira Pramac Racing	88		Yamaha	27	+21.565 41'42.463	0.601			7
10	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33		KTM	27	+23.109 41'44.007	1.544			6
11	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25		Aprilia	27	+24.592 41'45.490	1.483			5
12	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43		Yamaha	27	+27.492 41'48.390	2.900			4
13	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	1		Aprilia	27	+29.937 41'50.835	2.445			3
14	A. Fernandez Yamaha Factory Racing	7		Yamaha	27	+1'01.504 42'22.402	31.567			2
15	S. Chantra Team LCR	35		Honda	27	+1'01.932 42'22.830	0.428			1
16	J. Zarco Team LCR	5		Honda	26	+1 Lap 42'47.454	1 Lap
dnf	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23		KTM	11	+16 Laps 18'14.253	15 Laps		Retirement
dnf	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42		Yamaha	9	+18 Laps 14'53.934	2 Laps		Retirement
dnf	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63		Ducati	8	+19 Laps 13'10.877	1 Lap		Retirement
dnf	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37		KTM	7	+20 Laps 11'15.442	1 Lap		Retirement
dnf	M. Viñales Tech 3	12		KTM	4	+23 Laps 6'45.876	3 Laps		Retirement
dnf	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79		Aprilia	2	+25 Laps 4'16.563	2 Laps		Retirement
dnf	J. Mir Honda HRC	36		Honda	0	+27 Laps 22.017	2 Laps		Retirement
View full results

In this article

Rachit Thukral MotoGP

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