MotoGP’s newest winner returns to Europe “with important things to assess”

Trackhouse Aprilia team boss Davide Brivio says his squad has “some important things to assess” as the final back-to-back of 2025 begins this weekend in Portugal.

The satellite Aprilia outfit has enjoyed a breakout second season in the premier class, headlined by its maiden victory with Raul Fernandez at the Australian Grand Prix last month.

Coming into this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix, Trackhouse sits seventh in the teams’ standings but has a chance to break into the top six over the final two rounds.

It is just 20 points behind the factory Yamaha squad, while Fernandez is aiming to hold onto a place inside the top 10 in the championship for the first time in MotoGP.

Looking ahead to this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix, where Trackhouse was eighth last year with Miguel Oliveira, Davide Brivio spoke of the importance of the final two rounds for the team.

“We come back to Europe for the last two races and are already almost at the end of this year’s championship,” he said.

“We arrive in Portimao with some important things to assess.

“We had a positive Asian/Australian tour with Sprint podiums and a win with Raul so, now it’s going to be interesting to see starting from Portimao, where our level is considering that Sepang probably wasn’t the best track for Aprilia.

“Ai is continuing his recovery and his learning in MotoGP, so we are going into this last part of the championship with some important tasks from this point of view.

“I’m very interested to see how we’ll go in Portimao and what our assessment of the performance of Raul and Ai is going to be there.”

The Malaysian Grand Prix weekend stunted Aprilia’s progress to that point since the summer break, with the brand scoring just 10 points for the first time since the Aragon round.

It remains in a tight race to secure runner-up spot in the manufacturers’ standings, with KTM’s 27-point Sepang weekend pulling it closer to the Noale brand.

Aprilia enjoyed a strong Portuguese Grand Prix last year, with Maverick Vinales winning the sprint and narrowly missing out on a grand prix podium due to a mechanical issue.