Francesco Bagnaia delivered a commanding sprint victory at Sepang, leading from start to finish to reclaim momentum in the closing stages of the 2025 MotoGP season.
The Ducati Lenovo rider took the holeshot off the line and quickly checked out, building a steady gap over Alex Marquez that reached 2.2 seconds by lap nine.
Behind him, Gresini Racing celebrated a dream weekend. Alex Marquez finished second to secure runner-up in the championship, while teammate Fermin Aldeguer completed the podium and clinched the Rookie of the Year title.
The 19-year-old rookie sliced through the field from sixth to snatch the final podium spot off a fading Pedro Acosta. It’s the rookie’s seventh podium finish of the season.
(UPDATE: Fermin Aldeguer has been handed an 8-second time penalty for a tyre pressure infringement. The rookie drops to seventh.)
🔥 @Aldeguer54 is NOT done yet!
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 25, 2025
He seizes P3 with 3 laps to go 🥉👀#MalaysianGP 🇲🇾 pic.twitter.com/kliYt7VkcX
Acosta, making the best of the KTM’s rocketship-like launch, blitzed past Morbidelli off the line and even looked in contention for P2 after a brief mistake by Alex Marquez, but eventually faded to fourth, unable to match the Ducati pace in the second half of the race.
Franco Morbidelli brought the VR46 Ducati home in fifth, ahead of Fabio Quartararo, who lost ground in the early laps.
Marco Bezzecchi staged one of the day’s strongest recoveries from 14th on the grid, finishing seventh, and salvaging valuable points in the fight for third in the standings.
Behind him, Johann Zarco led the Honda charge in eighth after two crashes from the factory team riders, while KTM’s Enea Bastianini and VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the top ten.
😱💥 @Luca_Marini_97 has gone down after a contact with @polespargaro!
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 25, 2025
The incident is currently under investigation ⚠️#MalaysianGP 🇲🇾 pic.twitter.com/wgNZK1nHRs
Joan Mir crashed from fourth on lap six, extinguishing what had looked like Honda’s best result of the year. Moments later, Miguel Oliveira also went down from 18th.
Luca Marini tangled with Pol Espargaro in what was later deemed a race incident, sending the Honda rider into the gravel – his first crash of the season.
