Marco Bezzecchi wins the Indonesian GP, securing Italy’s 300th victory in the premier class and leading a result Aprilia had never achieved before in MotoGP: four RS-GPs filling the first four positions. Raul Fernandez finishes second. Jorge Martin takes third. Ai Ogura completes the Aprilia sweep in fourth. The same riders who had shown remarkable speed throughout the weekend, but whose Saturday had been marked by Bezzecchi and Fernandez crashing together at the opening corner. On Saturday, one corner was enough to end the races of Mandalika’s two fastest Aprilia riders. On Sunday, twenty-seven laps were enough to put four Aprilias ahead of everyone else.
Twenty-four hours later, the picture could hardly look more different. Bezzecchi wins by 4.260 seconds. Fernandez finishes second despite racing with two fractured fingers. Martin returns to the championship lead. Ogura completes an historic result for both Aprilia Racing and Trackhouse.
But the Italian Sunday is not entirely a celebration. Fabio Di Giannantonio finishes eighth, Enea Bastianini tenth, Luca Marini twelfth and Franco Morbidelli fourteenth. Francesco Bagnaia does not reach the finish.
Mandalika gives Aprilia its most complete MotoGP result, while leaving other Italian riders with questions that remain unanswered.
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Bezzecchi: the speed finally becomes a result in the Indonesian GP
Marco Bezzecchi did not need Sunday’s race to prove he was fast in Indonesia. He had topped Friday morning’s session, finished Practice just behind Raul Fernandez and qualified second, only 0.109 seconds away from pole position.
Then came the Sprint. A chaotic start, contact with Fernandez at Turn 1 and a retirement before either rider could show what their pace might have produced. Sunday offered another opportunity.
Starting from the same second position, Bezzecchi made it through the opening corners and stayed in contention. Fernandez moved into the lead and immediately set a strong pace. The two Aprilia riders began pulling away from the rest of the field.
But this was not a victory Bezzecchi built by escaping from the opening lap. He had to follow. He had to stay close. And he had to find a way past Fernandez, who was leading despite the two fractured fingers sustained in Saturday’s crash.
The decisive move came with nine laps remaining. Once ahead, Bezzecchi began extending his advantage. By the chequered flag, the gap had grown to 4.260 seconds.
It is a victory that does not need to erase Saturday’s disappointment. Instead, it confirms what the weekend had been showing long before the Grand Prix began.
The speed was already there. On Sunday, Bezzecchi finally carried it all the way to the finish. This time it brings twenty-five points. And a place in the history of Italian motorcycle racing.
Victory number 300. And four Aprilias ahead of everyone
Bezzecchi’s success in the Indonesian GP marks the 300th premier-class Grand Prix victory by an Italian rider. A milestone built across generations, manufacturers and very different eras of motorcycle racing. And this time it comes with an Italian rider winning on an Italian motorcycle.
But Mandalika’s historic significance extends beyond the winner. For the first time in MotoGP, Aprilia finishes a Grand Prix with all four of its bikes in the top four. Bezzecchi and Martin represent Aprilia Racing. Fernandez and Ogura represent Trackhouse. Two teams. Four riders. Four RS-GPs ahead of every other manufacturer.
The result becomes even more significant when compared with the previous Grand Prix. At Motegi, Aprilia had already placed all four bikes inside the top six, with Martin second, Bezzecchi third, Fernandez fifth and Ogura sixth. It was a powerful indication of the progress made by the manufacturer.
In Indonesia, that indication becomes something bigger. Not simply two riders on the podium. Not simply a factory team capable of winning. But both Aprilia teams ahead of everyone else. And the fourth position carries a detail worth remembering. Ogura finishes just 0.114 seconds ahead of Pedro Acosta.
A little more than a tenth separates the first-ever Aprilia top-four sweep from a very different result. Sometimes history comes down to a margin that small.
Fernandez: from Saturday’s injury to Sunday’s second place
Raul Fernandez deserves a story of his own.
He had set the pace in Friday’s Practice – breaking the circuit record – and had taken his first MotoGP pole position.
And then , just like Bezzecchi, he had seen his Sprint end at the opening corner. The crash left him with two fractured fingers. For a while, even his participation in Sunday’s Grand Prix was uncertain. Yet Fernandez lined up on pole. And when the lights went out, he moved into the lead. For much of the race, it was the Trackhouse rider setting the pace at the front. Bezzecchi eventually caught and passed him, but second place should not be reduced to what remained after losing the victory.
Fernandez had been fast throughout the weekend. He had returned to the grid injured. And he had led much of the Grand Prix.
Behind the two came Jorge Martin. Third at the finish, 6.890 seconds behind Bezzecchi, the Spaniard completed the Aprilia podium sweep. His result also carried an immediate consequence for the championship.
Martin returns to the lead as the title battle changes again
On Saturday, Marc Marquez had left the Sprint holding a four-point advantage over Jorge Martin. On Sunday, the positions changed again.
Martin finished third and collected sixteen points. Marquez, Saturday’s winner, crossed the line sixth, 10.778 seconds behind Bezzecchi, taking ten points.
Martin returns to the top of the championship with 355 points, two ahead of Marquez on 353. Two points. Exactly the margin separating them before the Indonesian weekend began. But now another race has passed, and the championship lead has changed hands twice in two days.
Bezzecchi remains third, moving to 309 points with his victory. He is now 46 points behind Martin. That is still a significant gap at this stage of the season. One victory does not suddenly turn it into an easy championship fight. But Mandalika allows Marco to recover ground after a Saturday that had seemed to take an important opportunity away from him.
Martin leaves Indonesia as the championship leader. And Bezzecchi leaves having reminded everyone that he remains capable of winning Grands Prix.
Bagnaia: another retirement, and questions that remain open
While Aprilia fills the first four positions, Francesco Bagnaia does not finish the Indonesian Grand Prix. It is the other result that cannot be overlooked in the Italian story of Mandalika.
Pecco arrived in Indonesia after a difficult weekend in Japan. Rear-tyre damage had forced him out of the Sprint at Motegi, while eighth place in Sunday’s race had brought points without providing a complete answer to his problems. On Friday at Mandalika, he had reported some improvements under braking and on corner entry. The Sprint, however, ended with another eighth place, more than ten seconds behind the winner. Sunday brings no points at all. Starting tenth, Bagnaia is classified as a retirement after completing 22 laps.
Without a confirmed explanation, the result alone is not enough to establish whether the retirement originated from a technical problem or a riding error.
But the sporting consequence is clear. Another Grand Prix without points. Another weekend in which small improvements during practice fail to become a meaningful result.
The comparison with the other factory Ducati is difficult. Marquez cannot fight for victory in Indonesia, but still finishes sixth and remains firmly involved in the championship battle. Bagnaia, meanwhile, is still searching for the consistency that has been missing for several races.
Motegi had at least allowed him to finish Sunday’s Grand Prix. Mandalika leaves a question that Japan had not yet answered.
Eight, six, four, two: the other Italian stories in the Indonesian GP
Eight, six, four, two. Those are also the numbers of the Italian Sunday at the Indonesian GP. Eight points for Di Giannantonio. Six for Bastianini. Four for Marini. Two for Morbidelli. Four results carrying different meanings.
Di Giannantonio finishes eighth, unable to repeat the podium he celebrated in Saturday’s Sprint on his 28th birthday. Still, he leaves Indonesia with a more substantial weekend than the difficult Japanese Grand Prix.
Bastianini takes tenth, returning to the points after finishing eleventh in the Sprint. It is a step forward within the weekend, even if his two fourth places at Motegi — including Sunday’s result just 0.078 seconds away from the podium — remain a reminder of the speed he is still trying to reproduce consistently.
Marini moves from fifteenth on Saturday to twelfth on Sunday, taking four points from a race that never brought him close to the leading positions.
Morbidelli finishes fourteenth in both races, scoring two points on Sunday while attention outside the track has already begun shifting towards his confirmed WorldSBK move with Aruba Ducati for 2027.
None of them has Bezzecchi’s result. But their different paths through Saturday and Sunday are also part of the Italian story at Mandalika.
Because behind an historic victory, there are four more riders still working towards something better.
From the opening corner to the chequered flag of the Indonesian GP: two completely different days
On Saturday, the images that defined the weekend showed Bezzecchi and Fernandez in the gravel. First and second in qualifying. Both out at Turn 1. Their speed had been clear. The result was missing.
On Sunday, those same two riders finish ahead of everyone else. Fernandez leads much of the race despite his injured hand. Bezzecchi catches him, passes him and rides away to victory. Martin completes the podium and returns to the championship lead. Ogura takes fourth, defending the final place in Aprilia’s historic sweep by just 114 thousandths.
And while Noale celebrates, the Italian Sunday still includes Bagnaia’s retirement and more difficult races for the others. Not everything about Mandalika tells a story of celebration.
On Saturday, the two fastest Aprilias did not make it past the opening corner. On Sunday, four Aprilias finished ahead of every other motorcycle.
And leading them, securing Italy’s 300th premier-class victory, was Marco Bezzecchi. This time, all the way to the chequered flag.
LINK
Read: Marquez takes the Indonesian Sprint in Mandalika and the championship lead, Diggia celebrates on the podium as Bezzecchi leaves empty-handed
Watch: MotoGP, Indonesian GP: the highlights of Sunday’s race in Mandalika on SkySport MotoGP Italy
