Penalty robs one rider of best MotoGP sprint result of 2025

Aprilia stand-in Lorenzo Savadori has been stripped of his best MotoGP sprint result of the 2025 season due to a tyre pressure infringement at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The Italian, who serves as Aprilia’s official test and reserve rider, has competed in all but one round in 2025 as Jorge Martin’s injury relief.

Lorenzo Savadori has enjoyed some solid Sunday results this year, including a 15th-place finish at the Americas Grand Prix and ninth in the rain-hit French Grand Prix.

But Saturdays have generally been a weak point for Savadori, who’d only qualified inside the top 20 once this season prior to this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.

At Assen, however, Savadori was a competitive 15th on the grid and went on to take his best sprint finish of the year in 16th ahead of Trackhouse Aprilia rider Ai Ogura.

But this was later stripped from him owing to a tyre pressure infringement, with Savadori given an eight-second time penalty.

This dropped him a spot to 17th ahead of Honda stand-in Aleix Espargaro.

Despite this, Savadori was left happy with the progress Aprilia is making.

“It was a positive day,” he said.

“The bike is getting better and better. We still came away with a decent lap in qualifying, and the sprint pace was solid, as well.

“We were able to battle a little bit in the beginning. Overall, we’re working well. The bike is improving all the time, as Marco’s podium clearly shows.”

Team-mate Marco Bezzecchi came through from fifth on the grid to snatch third, marking his first sprint podium since the 2023 Indonesian Grand Prix weekend when he was a VR46 Ducati rider.