nandez overtook Marquez at the
final corner. Bezzecchi still held
1.3 seconds in hand, but Raul Fer-
nandez immediately pulled clear
of
Marquez, who faded as Acosta
and Di Giannantonio closed in.
Acosta eventually dispatched
Marquez at turn four on lap 20,
with Di Giannantonio repeating
the move a lap later. Ahead, Raul
Fernandez chipped Bezzecchi's
lead down to half a second with
five laps remaining, setting up a
tense finale. With three laps left,
the gap shrank to four-tenths of a
Sunday non-finish and sixth in the
last seven rounds. Zarco received
a long-lap penalty as a result.
"I'm really sorry for Pecco,"
Zarco said. "I was trying to
avoid contact with Binder while
attempting to overtake Quartar
-
aro. In the change of direction,
when
I made the move, it was
very hard to stop the bike, and I
ended up crossing Pecco's line.
The impact was strong, and I'm
sorry to have ended his race. I
was expecting the penalty."
Zarco went on to finish the
race in 12th and finished the year
as the top-finishing Honda rider.
Bagnaia later said it was just
a racing incident.
At the front, Raul Fernandez
surged forward, passing Giannan
-
tonio and closing rapidly on Bez-
zecchi and Marquez by lap three.
Acosta also
cleared Di Giannanto-
nio and settled into fourth.
By lap 10,
the top three had
stretched a 2.6-second gap over
Acosta, and on lap 11, Raul Fer-
Bagnaia, sending the former
double champion into
the gravel
and mercifully ending his dread
-
ful 2025 season there and then.
It was Bagnaia's
fifth successive
VOLUME 62 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 18, 2025 P67
my performance and lap-by-lap I
was getting more feeling. Then, in
qualifying, I started not in a fantas-
tic way but in the second attempt I
ran out of fuel. So, it's something
that everyone makes mistakes."
YAMAHA'S V4
PROGRESS STALLED
Augusto Fernandez made his
third appearance of the season
aboard Yamaha's new V4 YZR
M1 but said he had the same
issues that he previously experi-
enced at Sepang. After riding with
a chassis similar to the current
inline-four M1 in Malaysia, the
former Moto2 champ was pleased
to have a different frame for this
weekend. "It was slightly better,"
he said. "But not the answer. The
problems are the same at this
track, which is a positive because
it means we are touching similar
problems on different tracks. And
a base setting is still some way
off. We are still looking," he ex-
plained. "It's centimeter changes
[between sessions]."
Briefly...
Luca Marini's seventh place on
Sunday finally lifted Honda from
level D concessions status to
Category C for 2026.
