Raul and Adrian Fernandez on fire in Valencia, moments of glory in the MotoGP season finale

Another pair of brother powerhouses? Not at the level of the Marquez duo for now, who dominated MotoGP this year, but the Valencia GP was unforgettable for two other guys, Raul and Adrian Fernandez. The season finale saw the younger brother take his first hard-fought Moto3 triumph, his maiden World Championship victory after three other podiums this season (there were 4, but he was disqualified from the Malaysian GP) and six in total, counting those from 2024 as well. The elder brother, the standout of yesterday’s Valencia test, claimed another premier class podium, gifting Aprilia a second joy after Bezzecchi’s win and another fine result for the Trackhouse team, only in its second year in the World Championship.

After a late-2020 stand-in ride, he has been a full-time Moto3 World Championship rider since 2021. “Pitito” struggled over the years until 2024, when he joined Leopard Racing. Throughout the season he recorded only three DNFs, his fewest ever, and the 158 points that netted him 6th overall (best Honda rider) also included his first World Championship podiums: 2nd in Indonesia, 3rd in Japan and Australia. This year, staying with the same team, he took another step forward despite the DNFs: let’s recall the leg surgery that sidelined him for a couple of GPs, four retirements, and the aforementioned disqualification. But the consistent top-10 finishes stand out (except for a 12th place), especially the three podiums and finally the first hard-fought win that came at the Valencia GP, the closing round of this 2025 season. A major milestone that sent the rider and Leopard Racing to cloud nine (their only win of the year), and also fired up his older brother, who had his race a few hours later.

And that’s exactly how it went. Energized by his little brother’s result, and surely determined to make up for the podium he narrowly missed in the Sprint, Trackhouse Aprilia’s #25 delivered another race to remember. A less-than-perfect start (he lost one position off the line), then the charge back up, moving into podium contention… and finally setting his sights on fellow Aprilia rider Bezzecchi, who had led the race from pole. After the Sprint P2 and the historic GP victory in Australia, Raul Fernandez put the physical issues that sidelined him in Malaysia and Portugal behind him and returned to the podium. Confirmation of the rider’s exponential growth, and of an ever-improving feeling with the RS-GP, a fact that can only delight Aprilia, which has also found an important benchmark in the Trackhouse rider. The Veneto brand now has not only Bezzecchi, but also the Spanish rider as a cornerstone from which to launch into an even more protagonist 2026.