Boosted from his 7th place in the sprint on Saturday, there was a Maverick Viñales eager to go at it again on the long distance in Jerez. As he lined up once again in 6th under the heat of Andalusia and the crazy atmosphere from a wild Spanish crowd, ‘Top Gun’ took a better start than Saturday as he kept his right line to enter T1 on the inside to close the door on Franco Morbidelli, and take the 5th spot behind Alex Marquez. Firmin Aldeguer and Fabio Di Giannantonio went through in the next turns as Maverick opened a small space, and he was 7th after one lap. The Ducatis were battling it out strong at the front, meanwhile, Viñales entered lap 2 battling it for 6th against Di Gia, one fight that he eventually won to move up to 6th, and find himself one second away from Aldeguer, who was making a solid start. That was P5 the next lap with Marc Marquez crashing out at the front in battle against teammate Francesco Bagnaia, allowing race leader Fabio Quartararo to breathe a bit more. Maverick settled into a solid pace early into the race, progressively catching back on Gresini’s rookie on lap 4 noticable with a fast sector 1. He clocked in a 1'37.575 which turned out to be his fastest race lap. After 5 laps, small gaps separated each rider from the front, and soon Aldeguer’s crash on lap 6 earnt Maverick P4, 1.5 seconds from the top three closed by Bagnaia. The rhythm was solid for the Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider, riding at similar pace to the front 3 while keeping a one second-gap on Di Gia behind. After 10 laps, the gap to rider number 49 was extended to 1.486 seconds, while Bagnaia was 1.2 seconds ahead. Undaunted, Viñales focused on maintaining the pace, and progressively we saw him reducing the gap to Pecco. 0.866 seconds after 13 laps, himself 0.2 secs from Quartararo fighting to keep his P2 alive. A small loss of concentration of Di Gia gave Maverick a more comfortable advance of 2.2 seconds on his chaser. Positions remained as they were while Alex Marquez was flying towards his first MotoGP™ win. A solid 18th lap in 1'37.932 reduced Maverick’s gap on Pecco to 0.593 seconds, and it kept reducing as Top Gun geared up for the remaining laps. However, the two-time world champion provided the extra effort to try catching up on Quartararo for crucial championship points with Marc Marquez at the back following an earlier crash, and we saw the 63 grow his advance on Viñales by more than 1 second. Positions remained as they were at the checkered flag, with Maverick taking a solid 4th place, a great reward to his great weekend at the Grand Prix of Spain, and his 'official' best 2025 result!

Starting from 18th again, Enea Bastianini took a rather good start too as he instantly gained two positions in the opening lap to exit lap one in 16th behind a Pedro Acosta who had dropped from 12th. The battle for 16th began though, with Luca Marini charging on Bastianini - in a similar scenario as the sprint – Marini won that first one while two mistakes ahead gave him a top 15 entrance. He moved to 14th after 6 laps while progressively closing the gap on Luca Marini. ‘Bestia’ gave an extra push in lap 7 with a solid 1'38.305 (his fastest race lap), which allowed him to seriously close the gap on Johann Zarco, now ahead. Sooner than later, he was literally in his back wheel, and it was in the 3rd sector of lap 9 that Enea saw an opportunity to move up to 13th. Bastianini remained behind Luca Marini in 13th for a while, until a drop of rhythm from Jack Miller gave him the chance to jump to 12th, and shortly after, that was P11 for the 23 with Joan Mir crashing from P6. Then it was Franco Morbidelli’s turn to make a mistake, and that became P10 with 10 laps to go. Bastia was closer than ever to Marini as the two treated us with a great battle for 9th on lap 18. Bastianini could make a move on Marini, but eventually opened T6 as he went wide. The battle was intense, and Enea eventually won it in the final sector, to enter lap 19 in P9. Next ahead was Ai Ogura, more than 3 seconds away. That P9 remained the final one as Enea saw the checkered flag. Another incredible remontada from Enea Bastianini from 18th to 9th, before an important testing day as the Red Bull KTM Tech3 squad stays in Jerez for one more day!