29th Australian Grand Prix throttled around the captivating setting of Phillip Island

27 laps of howling MotoGP began under cloudy, cool and windy skies at the revered site in the state of Victoria and with Acosta starting from P5 on the grid, Espargaro in P8, Binder P16 and Bastianini in P20. All four were aware of set-up lessons learned through their efforts in the 13-lap Saturday Sprint where Acosta registered the best result with a third podium appearance of the year.

Preservation of grip levels was a paramount ingredient for race success. Acosta fought for 2nd place in the formative stages but then had to adjust his rhythm as the laps clicked down. He tussled for the top five and managed to cross the finish line in 5th. Behind the Spaniard were frantic pockets of action with the three other KTM RC16s involved. Espargaro reached as high as 7th before being caught by pursuers which included a determined Binder and Bastianini. Binder emerged as the lead KTM in 8th as the Italian rode to 9th and only a second and a half split the duo. Espargaro, who will also compete for Red Bull KTM Tech3 next weekend in Malaysia, reached the flag in his third outing of the season in 10th to add to 9th and 8th place finishes in Czechia and Hungary this campaign.

Onto the Sepang International Circuit and one of only two venues where MotoGP accumulated many pre-season testing laps. The Malaysian Grand Prix will take place next weekend and will end the overseas trek for the championship as well as prefacing the final back-to-back double of Portuguese and Valencian rounds to close the book on 2025.

Pedro Acosta, 5th and 5th in the championship standings:“Difficult today. I would say we used 70% of our performance and we had those drops with the tires. I was quite convinced that it was a good day… but, man, I was managing. We need to keep going. We are close, but we need to wait for our moment. We knew this would be a tough track for us and…it was like this! Better tracks are coming and we know we can improve. We are consistently in the top five but we need to make another step.”

Brad Binder, 8th and 12th in the championship standings: “The race was a little bit tricky. I had a really good start and got in the mix. You really had to protect the rear tire because it was easy to mess up the edge. I tried to be clever with that and was riding very clean but it still dropped a lot at the end. I was really clear with what we need to improve to go faster. Otherwise, I cannot complain too much; 16th to 8th and decent pace.”

Enea Bastianini, 9th and 14th in the championship standings: “The race was solid. Starting from P20 was not easy but I was faster every lap and caught the group in front of me. I made some overtakes and was fighting for 7th place but then in the last four laps I had destroyed the rear tire. I gave everything to try and get that 7th and it was impossible to do more.”

Pol Espargaro, 10th: “Not too bad but when you have good results then you always want more and I felt that way after the Sprint yesterday and then being 6th fastest in Warm-Up. I think the four of us were controlling the rear spin quite well but somehow we were using the tire more than other riders on the grid so there are still things we need to understand. In my case, I was pretty fast at the beginning but even in managing what I had, the rear tire said ‘bye bye’ with eight laps to go and I lost some time. It’s a learning process and it is a good to be here and experience these things. We’ll move onto Malaysia.”

Aki Ajo, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “Generally we should be happy with all four riders in the top ten – this is a positive point – but, honestly, we are not happy about the race today and we have to understand why our performance suffered in the second half. Tire life was a bit worse than we expected. The weekend started as challenging on Friday and turned more positive with the Sprint on Saturday and then we came back to reality a bit today. To have a rider in 5th and all in the top ten is positive but we need to learn more from the conditions we found for the race.”

1. Raul Fernandez (ESP) Aprilia 39:49.571

2. Fabio Di Giannantonio (ITA) Ducati +1.418

3. Marco Bezzecchi (ITA) Aprilia +2.410

1. Marc Marquez (ESP) Ducati, 545 points

2. Alex Marquez (ESP) Ducati, 379

3. Marco Bezzecchi (ITA) Aprilia, 282

The 2025 Moto3 world championship had already been decided with Jose Antonio Rueda delivering Red Bull KTM Ajo’s fourth rider title two weeks previously in Indonesia and with KTM already claiming the Constructors championship. Rueda and Alvaro Carpe just needed to tie-up the Teams’ crown in Australia to complete the set and the pair duly delivered. Rueda emerged victorious for the tenth time this season after a duel for the flag and made his fourteenth podium appearance of the term. Carpe, feeling the full speed of Phillip Island for the first time, won an intense pack-battle for third place and returned to the top three for the first occasion since the Italian Grand Prix (the fourth trophy of the year for the rookie). Eyes were peeled for Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Jacob Roulstone who relied on the support of his fans at his home Grand Prix but the youngster fell while part of the dispute for the rostrum. Teammate Valentin Perrone, another Australian GP debutant, ranked P20.

Jose Antonio Rueda: “Today’s race was incredible, I enjoyed a lot and I managed to win here for the first time. We’ve proven to be the best team this season and now we’ve gotten our reward.”

In Moto2 Collin Veijer was seeking his seventh top ten finish from the last eight races but the Dutchman missed out by less than a second after an intense intermediate class race at Phillip Island. Veijer’s P12 did mean a twelfth consecutive points-scoring result for the team at the circuit. For the seventh time in a row, Daniel Muñoz stepped in to replace Deniz Öncü and he scored P21. The Spaniard will also compete next week at the Sepang International Circuit.

2. Joel Kelso (AUS), KTM +0.829

4. Joel Esteban (ESP) CFMOTO Aspar Team +12.696

5. Maximo Quiles (ESP) CFMOTO Aspar Team +12.773

2. Angel Piqueras (ESP), KTM, 231

3. Maximo Quiles (ESP) CFMOTO Aspar Team, 228

14. Dennis Foggia (ITA) CFMOTO Aspar Team, 94

1. Senna Agius (AUS) 35:00.085

2. David Alonso (COL) CFMOTO Aspar Team +3.684

3. Diogo Moreira (BRA) +3.721

4. Daniel Holgado (ESP) CFMOTO Aspar Team +4.440

1. Manuel Gonzalez (ESP), 247 points

2. Diogo Moreira (BRA), 245

3. Aron Canet (ESP), 212

6. Daniel Holgado (ESP) CFMOTO Aspar Team, 166

10. David Alonso (COL) CFMOTO Aspar Team, 117