The Catalan Grand Prix was one for the books, with Enea Bastianini scoring his maiden Sunday podium of the season with the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team, the perfect end to wrap up a solid weekend in Barcelona after reaching the top 5 on Saturday’s sprint. We are also very proud of Maverick Viñales who clinched the 13th place on home turf, after he completed a full race weekend just two months after his shoulder injury. It was tough, but riders are made of something else!

Grand Prix of Catalonia

A hot race awaited once again the MotoGP™ class on Sunday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with a track at 41° and all riders facing Barcelona’s biggest challenge, tire management! With all opting for the medium-medium tire combination at the exception of Pedro Acosta making the bet to use the soft at the rear, lights were out at 2pm for 24 laps of madness. From P9, Enea Bastianini took once again a rocket start to smoothly sneak into the 6th position at the exit of T1 behind Luca Marini, and shortly after he could move past the Honda rider with a nice move on the inside of T10. That was P5 at the end of the opening lap for the number 23, and a 0.35 gap to Fabio Quartararo. At the front, Marc Marquez was leading the charges ahead of brother Alex and Pedro Acosta in third. Enea clocked in a solid early hot lap 2 in 1’40.156 that gave him the confidence to overcome the Frenchman on lap 3 in a clean and nice move. P4 after 3 laps. After 4 laps, Bastianini was completely in the back wheel of Acosta with another hot lap in 1’40.120, but Acosta was putting in a solid early pace and closing all doors. Enea settled behind the front three to follow them, and soon entering lap 8, Bastia was closer than ever to fellow KTM rider Acosta, who continued to defend pretty well. Behind, Quartararo was 1.7 seconds away. The first turn was going to be the one, and after a few attempts, Bastianini beat Acosta at the braking entering lap 11, to move up to the provisional 3rd place. Halfway through the race, Acosta started to struggle with his rear soft letting him down, while Bastianini continued to produce a solid pace that allowed him to escape to the front, and within a few laps, he was more than one second away. Marquez brothers increased the pace as just 5 laps remained, and with Acosta not a threat anymore, it was all about securing that 3rd spot. As Alex Marquez took the win on home turf followed by brother Marc, Enea Bastianini brilliantly crossed the line in 3rd to score his first KTM podium on a Sunday, with a gap of 5.562 seconds to the winner. Congratulations to all the team for an incredible weekend, and we hope this first podium will be the first of many, with the Italian heading on home turf next in Misano!

For Maverick Viñales, it was a weekend of learnings, with the Catalan able to go through the full race weekend at his own rhythm just two months after his shoulder injury. As the race began, Maverick took a good start as he gained 6 positions in the fist turns to find himself behind Brad Binder, but then he dropped to 18th in the second corner, and eventually came out of lap 1 in P19 behind Alex Rins. The Spaniard settled into his own pace to understand his capacity, and he still sat in 19th after the first 5 laps behind Aleix Espargaro. Lap after lap, Maverick appeared to feel good and we saw him progressively increase the pace, until he could overcome Espargaro entering lap 8. After 10 laps, the number 12  was in 17th behind Franco Morbidelli, putting in solid lap times similar to the top 10, an encouraging performance for the Spaniard. The Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider made a top 15 entrance on lap 15 with Alex Rins crashing out, and the pace continued to increase with a solid lap 17 in 1’41.036, with only the top 3 lapping faster. Not bad, hun? Morbidelli’s crash in the last lap gave Maverick P14, and in a last effort, Maverick could find a way to 13th past Fermin Aldeguer. That’s a brilliant 13th place for Top Gun, who showed a great mentality all weekend despite still not being at his 100%. We are sure that he will look forward to getting back on the bike already next week to continue his recovery, as we head next to Misano for the Grand Prix of San Marino, on September 12-13-14!

ENEA BASTIANINI: "It was a very tough and long race, but we managed the start pretty well I think. Once I was behind Alex, Marc and Pedro, I tried to keep their pace and be smooth with the throttle. Then Pedro started to lose a bit on the front two, and that gave me the opportunity to overtake. It was not easy because he brakes really late, but we took our chance and we managed well. I took some distance on Pedro then, but the two Marquez increased their pace in the end, so from there I just focused on keeping my pace until the end! We can be really satisfied, it is our first Sunday podium, so we are really happy and let’s enjoy it with the team!"

MAVERICK VIÑALES: "It was an interesting weekend, very tough, but we accomplished our target. Physically, it was difficult. We started the race a bit calm to understand our condition, and as we saw we were feeling ok, we increased the pace a bit step by step when I saw that I could finish the race. I am happy overall, we will keep working in Misano."

NICOLAS GOYON, Team Manager: "What an unbelievable race Enea Bastianini produced in Catalonia. This first podium of the season has been coming for a few rounds now, and it is a great reward for all the work done with the team. Hungary was not meant to be, but he really wanted to show his potential here in Barcelona. He took this podium with the manner, and we are all very happy for him! The weekend was really tough physically for Maverick Vinales, but we are really happy for him to have completed that weekend, we know it was not easy on many aspects, so we really want to thank him for that! 3 points were not expected, but we are really proud of him, and we know he is on the good path to recovery. Congratulations to both our riders, and let’s head to the next one in Italy!"

RACE RESULTS

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDING

TRACK RECORDS

All Time Record: 2025 - A. Marquez (SPA) - 1'37.536 - 171.8 km/h
Best Race Lap: 2024 - P. Acosta (SPA) - 1'39.664 - 168.2 km/h
Best Pole: 2025 - A. Marquez (SPA) - 1'37.536 - 171.8 km/h
Top Speed: 2023 - A. Espargaro (SPA) - 356.4 km/h