Some riders put on new tires at the end – Jack Miller fastest ahead of Ai Ogura and Aleix Espargaro – Augusto Fernandez tenth with V4 Yamaha
At the start of practice for the 2025 MotoGP season finale in Valencia, tires were the deciding factor. Some riders opted for new Michelins at the end and significantly improved their times. Jack Miller set the fastest time. Rookie Ai Ogura (Trackhouse-Aprilia) and wildcard starter Aleix Espargaro (Honda) were in the top 3 (see results).
With an outside temperature of just 20 degrees Celsius, it was a cool start to the last race weekend of the season. Due to a lengthy interruption in Moto2 practice, the session started almost half an hour late.
Toprak Razgatlioglu’s former crew chief Phil Marron was on site for the first time in the KTM pit. He will be looking after Brad Binder next year. In return, Andres Madrid is moving to Tech3 and will be looking after Enea Bastianini in future. After around ten minutes, Binder had the first crash of the weekend. He was caught out in turn 8. Six minutes before the end of practice, Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini-Ducati) crashed. The best rookie of the year’s front wheel folded in at Turn 4.
An early tumble for @BradBinder_33 at Turn 8 ⚠️ValenciaGP pic.twitter.com/cQQNgZTGiw
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) November 14, 2025
In the final stages, several riders switched to new tires and significantly improved their times. Miller set the fastest time with 1:30.382 minutes. Ogura moved up to second place and wildcard starter Aleix Espargaro (Honda) set the third-fastest time.
Australia winner Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse-Aprilia) also switched to new tires and improved to fourth place. Franco Morbidelli (VR46-Ducati) followed in fifth place on used tires.
Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati) stuck with one set of tires. As a result, the vice world champion set his personal best time right at the start of his fifth lap. With this time, Alex Marquez was half a second behind and took sixth place.
The top 10 was completed by Joan Mir (Honda), Pedro Acosta (KTM), Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46-Ducati), and Augusto Fernandez (Yamaha). The Spaniard is making his third wildcard appearance with the new V4 Yamaha. On Thursday, he confirmed that the engineers are still not releasing any more power. However, a revised chassis was used for the first time. Augusto Fernandez lost a few km/h on the home straight. Nevertheless, he was only 0.653 seconds behind. Francesco Bagnaia had technical problems. Both Ducatis were worked on for a long time in the pits. As a result, he drove slightly fewer laps than most of the other riders. Bagnaia finished 21st, 1.1 seconds behind.
Portimao winner Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) also decided not to use a new rear tire. He was about a second behind and finished in 18th place. His teammate Jorge Martin returned after an injury break.
Martin emphasized beforehand that this weekend was primarily about completing laps and finding his rhythm again. He is not thinking about results, as he also has to serve two long-lap penalties. Martin finished last, one and a half seconds behind. Maverick Vinales (Tech3-KTM) also returned for the season finale. The Spaniard finished 19th, one second behind.
The afternoon practice session starts at 3:00 p.m. As always, this is when the decision will be made as to who qualifies directly for Q2.
