Alessandro di Persio put himself in prime position to become the 2025 FIM Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup Champion on Sunday with a clever and calculated victory in Race 1 at MotorLand Aragon this afternoon.

The Italian, who has been the stand-out performer across this year’s championship, put on a tactical display to take a fifth victory of the season, getting the better of his rivals in the last two laps of the longest circuit on the calendar.

Di Persio was involved in the fight from the off, taking an early lead from polesitter Pastore (Italy) and one-event entrant Ivan Spada (Italy). Xarly Mendez de Oleo (Dominican Republic) was also in the mix early on, but with two long-lap penalties he was ruled out of overall contention.

An impressive performance from Spada came to a premature end on lap four as he crashed out at Turn 7, while Di Persio’s hopes of claiming the title in Race 1 began to fade as title challenger Chris Clark (USA) progressed through the field, often taking the lead around the outside of the final corner.

With the top ten locked in battle for victory, it looked like anyone’s race but Di Persio outfoxed them all, biding his time before making clever use of the slipstream on the final lap to take the win by 0.179 seconds.

Teppei Kugawa (Japan) was able to recover from a long-lap penalty to finish second with Kakeru Okunuki completing a Japanese 2-3 in third.

Polesitter Emanuele Pastore (Italy) took fourth ahead of Mario Salles (Brazil) and Indonesia’s Arai Agaska. Aymon Bocanegra (Brazil) took seventh ahead of Clark with Mendez de Oleo recovering to ninth. Jean Kento Turner (Japan) rounded out the top ten.

Di Persio’s victory puts him in a strong position to clinch the title on Sunday with one round remaining – a feat he’ll achieve if he maintains a points of more than 50 points. Second place moved Teppei Kugawa into second in the championship, now 64 points off Di Persio with Agaska moving third and Clark fourth.

Kugawa set the fastest lap of the race (2’12.418) to take pole for Sunday’s race and will be joined by Mendez De Oleo and Crienen on the front row of the grid.

Alessandro di Persio said: “We are one step closer! I am really happy with this result, thank you to the Arco MotoR University team for a great bike and all the BLU CRU staff. The victory of the championship is now near, but we have to stay focused and try to get the best result we can.”

Click here to see the Race 1 results and here to see the Championship standings.