Battle for second wide open as FIM Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup set to conclude at Estoril
Portugal will host the 2025 season finale with the title already wrapped up, but the fight for second goes on
The 2025 FIM Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup is set to conclude at the Circuito Estoril this weekend, and while the title was wrapped up for Alessandro Di Persio last time out, the battle for second and third is wide open with three riders split by just four points ahead of the weekend’s final two races.
An imperious Di Persio wrapped up the title on Sunday in MotorLand Aragon having taken six victories over the first five rounds. The Italian has only finished off the podium once this season, and that’s when he was involved in another rider’s incident in the opening round at Portimao. The Italian will be looking to sign off in style in Portugal this weekend before graduating to the all-new FIM World Sportbike Championship on the Yamaha R7 in 2026.
Chris Clark currently heads the battle for the runner-up spot with 125 points, but Arai Agaska (Indonesia), Teppei Kugawa (Japan) and Mario Salles (Brazil) are all within four points of the American and vying to end the season on a high.
A strong round for Italy’s Emanuele Pastore, who won the R3 SuperFinale at Estoril last year, could see him jump up the order – he’s currently 23 points behind fifth placed Salles ahead of this weekend’s final round.
The grid is an even more international affair than usual this weekend with Valentino Milone of Argentina, Valentino Knezovic of Australia, Leonardo Marques of Brazil, Hinata Okada of Japan and Nathan Bettencourt of the USA joining as one-event entrants.
Action gets underway at 09:00 local time on Friday ahead of Superpole at 13:15. The two races will take place at 10:15 on Saturday and 10:05 on Sunday and can be watched live on the Yamaha Racing YouTube channel.
