“End of the Beginning.”
After eight months, 22 races and one of the strangest MotoGP seasons I can ever remember finishes up at Valencia in a… largely straight forward fashion in the end. Honestly, after last year’s tragic events in the region, it’s just good to have Valencia back and racing at the circuit again. To close out 2025, Marco Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez split victories for the second race weekend in a row, and Diggia just barely hung onto the Bologna factory’s 88-race podium finishing streak. Let’s talk about it.
Sprint, Race / Shot, Chaser / Rinse, Repeat
Another tale of two races kind of weekend. Marco Bezzecchi just took pole position in one of the closest Qualifying sessions in MotoGP history – The Top 5 covered by less than a tenth of a second, with Alex Marquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Raul Fernandez and Pedro Acosta all in play for the weekend and looking good on longer runs.
In the Sprint, Bez was looking decent for a holeshot… until ironically, his holeshot device jammed down between Turns 1 and 2 nearly led to the Italian crashing. He got bullied on the opening lap and dropped as low as sixth, and could only recover to fourth as Marquez and Acosta went at it again for the third “race” in a row. Once again, Alex Marquez would inch out a gap over Acosta and eventually take his third Sprint win of the year, with Diggia in 3rd.
And just like in Portimao, Bez got it figured out in Grand Prix trim. Once he took the lead at the opening corner, he never lost it. But it definitely became a game of tire preservation and the Ducati wasn’t fully at the races. Alex Marquez spent the first 8 laps trying to stay with Bez’s pace, but faded fast in the back half as Ducati’s fabled rear grip completely vanished down the stretch, and Marquez suffered the worst of any of the big hitters on his Chrome Gresini GP24. He eventually finished 6th, beaten to the line by teammate Fermin Aldeguer on the final corner of the last lap.
The threat for the win came from the surprising Trackhouse Aprilia of Raul Fernandez, who got around Marquez early, chipping away at bringing the leading gap down from 1.5 seconds to within three tenths, but didn’t quite get close enough to mount a full assault on Bez down the stretch.
Valencia’s always been that way. Races tend to be led lights to flag and it’s exceptionally hard to overtake. Turn 1 is tricky because it’s still a medium speed corner and you’re coming at 210mph. If not there, you’re looking at block passes into Turn 2 or 6. Beyond that… good luck. Bez had just enough in hand to hold off Fernandez, who has closed out 2025 in very strong form indeed. Further behind, Diggia did just enough to beat Pedro Acosta down the stretch, meaning Ducati just about hold onto their Grand Prix streak of having at least one bike on the podium. It goes back 88 races to the 2021 British Grand Prix1, and I suspect if there was one factory that was hurt most by not having data from running in Valencia, it was Ducati.
It was another excellent victory by Marco Bezzecchi, who has led the last 46 Grand Prix racing laps in a row, becoming the first Aprilia rider to win three times in a single-season, and the first to do so back-to-back. With it, Bez takes third in the Championship for the second time in his career, and caps off what clearly has to be the best season in Aprilia’s premier-class history. Given it was also a 1-2 finish for the brand, you have to think going into an off-season that they’re going in as class leaders.
The erratic nature of the GP25 was definitely neutered by Marc Marquez’s brilliance, and even with Alex’s breakthrough season on the GP24, they’ve struggled against Bez for most of the back half of the season. Ducati needs a big off-season to re-establish their dominance, because if they don’t, the warning shots are coming from across the river. 2026 starts now.
The Final Lightning Round
Franco Morbidelli crashed into the back of Aleix Espargaro’s Honda while moving into his grid position, crashed and fell over, then broke a bone in his hand and will now miss the test on Tuesday. Is that not the most Franky thing OF ALL TIME?! (Credit to Romquez0 on X for the dramatic retelling)
That man is taking his beef with Aleix Espargaro to the grave.
Im so sorry im still wildly laughing pic.twitter.com/Poio3Byjf6
— Romo 🏆 #9FOR93 (@Romquez0) November 16, 2025
Oh, Pecco. I just felt sorry for him this weekend. His 6th Q1 appearance in the final 11 races, derailed further due to Ducati forgetting to refuel his bike, a nothing-burger in the Sprint, and then his Grand Prix lasting 30 seconds after being completely wiped out by a desperate Johann Zarco. It means Pecco DNF’d the final FIVE Grand Prix of 2025, and the factory team scored just 20 points2 since they 1-2’d in Motegi to wrap up the Triple Crown. Welp. And if Pecco’s comments in regards to testing are true, he already sounds like a rider who knows he’s on a hot seat.
“I clearly have my idea of what will be something that will help me, but looking at the data and everything it’s difficult to arrive to this kind of performance. So, it’s difficult also for me to understand well and analyse the things, and we are trying to do it in the best way as possible, but it’s difficult, and we are trying from the first race.”
Fifth in the Championship, and only 26 points off Fabio Di Giannantonio. The post-mortem will be ugly.
Honda had a rollercoaster of a final weekend. Joan Mir committed insubordination via wrecking in Turn 2 and collecting Luca Marini in the process, taking a Long Lap Penalty for his trouble. But Luca Marini did literally just enough to finish seventh in the Grand Prix and get the 9 points needed to move Honda into Rank C for concessions. Reminder, this means they lose exclusive testing privileges, 40 tires, losing the right to test with their GP riders, an aero update and engine development going into 2026. The good news, Honda’s engineers are going to have a much quieter winter. And man, they’ve earned it.
Yamaha confirmed there was no going back and that they’d be moving on from the Inline-4 to the V4 engine in 2026. Which still really doesn’t look ready at all. Fabio Quartararo paid tribute to the old bike by throwing it into a gravel trap. He’s allowed – He scored more points this season (201), than the rest of the Yamaha effort combined.3
Was genuinely emotional seeing Herve Poncheral sign off at Tech3 after 40 years in the paddock. I sincerely hope he’s not a stranger in the future, but he’s been exceptional as a team principal, president of the IRTA and a friend to all in bike racing. Salute to whatever comes next for Uncle Herve.
Not the way the Moto2 Championship should have been decided, with Manu Gonzalez’ rear tire seemingly destroying itself with a good third of the race left. Diogo Moreira limped home in 11th place to take the crown and become Brazil’s first ever Grand Prix World Champion, and a comeback from 61 points down after the French Grand Prix and won it with more than a round in hand.
Friend and Patreon backer Ciara mentioned that with teammate Senna Agius also falling rapidly down the order late on, was it a Dynavolt team issue? They’ll be words in the off-season given Gonzalez had already lost 20 points from Mandalika that would have absolutely changed the complexion of the fight. Congrats to both Izan Guevara and Adrian Fernandez for both becoming first-time class winners on the day, a combined 144 starts between them in Moto2/3 respectively. Someone needs to give Pedro Acosta a hug.
Genuinely considering dropping my £20 a month TNT Subscription for MotoGP video pass next year, purely because the glaze for Jake Dixon actually got too much for me to enjoy the broadcast. And that sucks because Dixon’s a good dude for the most part. As I’ve said many times before, the “Boys Club” nature of bike coverage in the UK needs to change for the better.
The Verdict: 5.5/10 (Average) – This was fine. For Valencia, it was pretty good. A tight and competitive race with a surprise contender, some good quality passes, which had to be given the track, and the story of the race changed as it went on. As always before I go, I just want to say thank you to everyone who’s read, shared, talked about the series and enjoyed it. Even those who blocked me on Twitter because their takes went viral. Season Review 2-parter across the next fortnight, but until then, thank you so much for reading.
- Fabio Quartararo (Not suffering), Alex Rins (Suzuki) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) the trio on that one. ↩︎
- 14 from Bagnaia for the Sprint win in Malaysia and the eighth in Portimao, four points from Marquez’s sixth in the Indonesia Sprint, and two from Nicolo Buelga’s 15th’s in his two stand-in appearances. Grim. ↩︎
- Jack Miller, Alex Rins, Miguel Oliveira and Augusto Fernandez – 198 points combined. ↩︎
