Marco Bezzecchi overcame an early-race clash with a seagull and bounced back from a mid-race error to romp to a convincing sprint race win at the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island on Saturday, the Aprilia rider taking back-to-back sprint victories after winning in Indonesia two weeks ago.
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The Italian, who qualified second, clattered into a flock of seagulls on the warm-up lap, and then recovered from dropping one second to early-race leader Raul Fernandez (Aprilia) after nearly rear-ending the Spanish rider at Turn 10 on lap six.
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Bezzecchi bounced back to take the lead with four laps remaining in the 13-lap sprint, bolting to a 3.149-second victory over Fernandez, who claimed his second sprint podium in as many races as Aprilia took a 1-2 finish in a sprint for the first time.
KTM rider Pedro Acosta just held off Australia’s Jack Miller (Yamaha) for third place, Miller finishing fourth for his best sprint result of the season after his first front-row qualifying slot for two years, and the first front row by an Australian at home since Casey Stoner took pole for Honda at Phillip Island in 2012.
Bezzecchi, who will take a double long-lap penalty into Sunday’s 27-lap Grand Prix after his clash with world champion Marc Marquez in Indonesia that left Marquez needing right shoulder surgery, broke the Phillip Island circuit record on Friday before being pipped by Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo by 0.031secs in Saturday morning qualifying, but made the rest look second-rate as he took his third sprint victory of the 2025 season.
“It was pretty hard because at the beginning I hit a big bird – unfortunately for him especially – but also for me because I got scared, but fortunately nothing was broken on the bike,” he said.
“I had a lot of fun. Raul was impressive at the beginning, super quick, and I couldn’t catch him. Once I catch him I make a mistake immediately, so I had to go through some more difficult laps again, but a fantastic job and I’m very happy to win today.”
Fernandez, who finished third for his first sprint podium last time out in Indonesia, was 2.161secs ahead of Acosta in second, with Miller missing the podium by just 0.066secs.
The 30-year-old Australian, on his 250th Grand Prix start across all classes, qualified on the front row for the first time since the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix for KTM, and narrowly missed his first sprint race podium since the German Grand Prix earlier that same year.
Miller had scored points in just two sprints – Great Britain and Germany – before Saturday, and made a last-gasp dive towards Acosta with three corners left on the final lap, Acosta just managing to hold off Miller and a fast-finishing Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati), who stormed through from 10th on the grid.
The 27-lap Australian Grand Prix, round 19 of the 22-round MotoGP season, will take place at 3pm on Sunday (AEDT) after race organisers took the decision to delay the schedule by one hour to avoid high winds set to hit Phillip Island earlier in the day.
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