Solid sixth for determined Marini to cap off Australian GP

Solid sixth for determined Marini to cap off Australian GP

Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Phillip Island, Ventnor, Victoria, Australia, October 19th, 2025– Luca Marini had his mettle tested across the entire 27-laps of race day in Phillip Island, the Italian narrowly missing out on fifth place after a late charge. Mir tumbled from a top ten challenge

Delayed an hour, the Australian GP avoided the worst of the day’s wind and saw the main event go ahead without any further delay or incident. With some cloud cover overhead, conditions remained as they had been for much of the weekend in Phillip Island.

Aggressive from the start, Luca Marini made sure to attack Pol Espargaro early to try and avoid a repeat of their intense battle on Saturday. Besting him after a few laps, Marini focused on staying with a fast-recovering Bezzecchi and breaking free of the chasing group. Matching the times of the leaders, the #10 rapidly closed down Acosta in the final five laps and missed taking fifth place from him by the narrowest of margins – just 0.040s at the line.

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Sixth place is Marini’s 11th top ten result of the season and continues a clear trend of further improvement post-Misano Test. The result moves Marini to within just eight points of Zarco as the pair contest top Honda honours and a potential top ten spot in the World Championship.

Joan Mir’s race came to a premature end when he fell from 12th place on lap 10 at Turn 10. Unharmed, it was an unfortunate result as the #36 and the Honda HRC RC213V clearly had the pace for the top ten at full distance.

A quick hop, skip and a jump for the Honda HRC Castrol team as they head to the Sepang International Circuit for Round 20 of the 2025 MotoGP World Championship. Having started the season there with testing, the Malaysian GP is always a good chance to benchmark the improvements made over the year.

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Sharing his thoughts after the race, Luca Marini said, “A tough race but it makes our finish more rewarding. A decent amount of points but a lot of good work by the team and Honda HRC over the weekend, it’s important to work like this every weekend. This weekend we couldn’t turn the bike like we needed to at a faster circuit like Phillip Island, it’s something to work on in future development. The target is to finish ahead of Zarco in the championship, and we have been closing him down with each race. We head to Malaysia with a lot of motivation, staying positive and believing in our potential that we have shown. There is still more potential to unlock in our overall package, we’ve made a good step but we need to keep working.”

While Joan Mir said, “From lap one something felt strange, and I was not able to overtake and ride as I really wanted. Still, we could make up some positions, and I think there was a lot more potential today. We had something on the front tyre with the temperature, which is really critical with these bikes. Obviously, I am not happy with how our weekend went, we knew that it would be a harder weekend, but we were aiming to come away with something more. Now for Malaysia where we aim to get back into the groove we’ve had the last races.”

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Australian GP- Race Results

Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Fernandez Raul 25 SPA 25 Trackhouse Racing Aprilia 39’49.571
2 Di Giannantonio Fabio 49 ITA 20 Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team Ducati 1.418
3 Bezzecchi Marco 72 ITA 16 Aprilia Racing Aprilia 2.41
4 Marquez Alex 73 SPA 13 Team Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 3.715
5 Acosta Pedro 37 SPA 11 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 7.93
6 Marini Luca 10 ITA 10 Honda HRC Castrol Honda 7.97
7 Rins Alex 42 SPA 9 Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 10.671
8 Binder Brad 33 RSA 8 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 12.27
9 Bastianini Enea 23 ITA 7 Red Bull KTM Tech 3 KTM 14.076
10 Espargaro Pol 44 SPA 6 Red Bull KTM Tech 3 KTM 16.861
11 Quartararo Fabio 20 FRA 5 Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 16.965
12 Oliveira Miguel 88 POR 4 Prima Pramac Yamaha Yamaha 17.677
13 Ogura Ai 79 JPN 3 Trackhouse Racing Aprilia 17.928
14 Aldegeur Fermin 54 SPA 2 Team Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 18.413
15 Morbidelli Franco 21 ITA 1 Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team Ducati 27.881
16 Savadori Lorenzo 32 ITA 0 Aprilia Racing Aprilia 34.169
17 Chantra Somkiat 35 THA 0 LCR Honda Honda 50.043
18 Pirro Michele 51 ITA 0 Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 50.303
19 Bagnaia Francesco 63 ITA DNF Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati DNF
20 Mir Joan 36 SPA DNF Honda HRC Castrol Honda DNF
21 Miller Jack 43 AUS DNF Prima Pramac Yamaha Yamaha DNF
22 Zarco Johann 5 FRA DNF LCR Honda Honda DNF

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