2025 British MotoGP: Marco Bezzecchi stuns for victory after red flag drama
Aprilia wins again at Silverstone with Marco Bezzecchi
Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi took a shock victory in a chaotic 2025 MotoGP British Grand Prix as the factory Ducati riders struggled at Silverstone.
The 20-lap British Grand Prix started under dramatic circumstances as a tangle between Franco Morbidelli and Aleix Espargaro left oil on track at Vale, leading to a red flag.
At Turn 1, Alex Marquez - who won the sprint - crashed while taking the lead, with Marc Marquez falling at Turn 10 as he led seconds prior to the race being red-flagged.
The stoppage allowed both Marquez brothers to take the 19-lap restart as three tours hadn’t been completed, offering a reprieve for both.
At the restart, polesitter Fabio Quartararo grabbed the lead on his factory Yamaha and headed the field for much of the race before a technical issue knocked him out on lap 12.
This allowed Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi to inherit the lead and take his first victory since the 2023 Indian GP, and his first for the Italian manufacturer.
The win comes just two weeks after bombshell reports claimed reigning world champion Jorge Martin is looking to exercise a performance clause in his contract to quit Aprilia at the end of 2026.
LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco added to his Le Mans victory with a ride to second in the British GP, while Marc Marquez fended off Morbidelli to complete the podium.
Alex Marquez was fifth at the chequered flag, while Pecco Bagnaia crashed out for the second grand prix in a row.
Marc Marquez leads the championship by 24 points now, while Bagnaia is now 72 points adrift.
At the restart, Bagnaia was the one who briefly led into Turn 1 before Quartararo scythed his way through at Farm Curve.
This began an 11-lap stint in the lead that would see him get over four seconds clear of the field, before a problem with his rear ride height device got stuck and forced him to retire.
On the third lap, both Marc Marquez and Bagnaia ran wide at Copse while battling for the podium places, dropping them to the fringes of the top 10.
Two tours later, Bagnaia crashed going through Luffield.
At this stage of the race, Bezzecchi - who was one of a handful of riders, including Zarco and Quartararo to gamble on the soft front - had gotten up to the podium places.
When up to second on lap six, Bezzecchi set about cutting down Quartararo’s lead before being released into the head of the pack when the Yamaha retired on lap 12.
Bezzecchi would get to the chequered flag 4.088s clear of Zarco.
The battle for third raged to the final corner, with Marc Marquez - who steadily worked his way through the pack after his Copse runoff - battling hard with Morbidelli.
The pair traded places through Chapel corner, before swapping again into Stowe and then Vale, with Marquez snatching the place back into the last corner to take third by just 0.017s.
Alex Marquez salvaged fifth, while Pedro Acosta led the KTM charge in sixth ahead of Pramac’s Jack Miller - who was second in the early stages.
Luca Marini was eighth, but faces a tyre pressure penalty, while Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer and VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio rounded out the top 10.
Brad Binder was forced to drop a place from 14th to 15th due to a track limits violation on the last lap.
