Italy’s Alessandro Di Persio was crowned 2025 FIM Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup Champion in style with a double victory at Motorland Aragon this weekend.
A sixth victory of the 2025 season on Sunday was enough to see Di Persio build an insurmountable points lead in the championship standings to second-placed Chris Clark and stand atop of the podium as the World Cup Champion with one round remaining.
Starting 11th on the grid for Sunday’s Race 2, Di Persio was unfazed, and a strong start saw him take the lead by the end of the opening lap. Another frenetic R3 Cup battle ensued across the nine laps, but the Italian once again outwitted his opponents to be in the right place and the right time and cross the line for the win.
2024 BLU CRU R3 European SuperFinale winner Emanuele Pastore (Italy) secured his first podium of the season withs econd place with Kakeru Okunuki (Japan) rounding out a positive weekend with another third place finish.
Mario Salles (Brazil) was fourth ahead of one-event entrant Ivan Spada (Italy) and Chris Clark (USA), who had looked again to win the race at the final corner but crossed the line in fifth.
Xarly Mandez de Oleo (Dominican Republic) was seventh, ahead of Dawid Nowak (Poland) while Alessandro Binder (Switzerland) and Arai Agaska (Indonesia) rounded out the top ten.
It has been a dominant season for Di Persio, with six victories and nine podium finishes from the 10 races so far. His championship victory will see him rewared with a supported ride in the all-new World Sportbike Championship for 2026.
Di Persio’s victory guarantees him a promotion to the all-new Sportbike class in 2026 with a supported ride aboard a Yamaha R7.
While the champion is decided, the battle for the runner-up spot is still in full swing with just four points separating Clark, Agaska and Kugawa heading into the final round of the season in Estoril next month.
Alessandro Di Persio
2025 FIM Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup Champion
“I don’t have words! I am proud to be part of this project, because two years ago here I found a family. Thank you to Yamaha, to Arco MotoR University, my family and all my sponsors. It has been an incredible season, I have enjoyed it very much and I will fight with all my force in 2026 in the Sportbike class.”
Niccolò Canepa – Road Racing Sporting Manager, Yamaha Motor Europe
“Congratulations to Alex on this incredible victory, he has had a brilliant season in the R3 World with six wins, and he has only missed the podium once this year when he was involved in a crash with another rider. The purpose of the BLU CRU program is to find the next racing talent and help them progress through the categories, so we are delighted that we can do this by offering Alex a supported ride in World Sportbike with the R7 for 2026. We look forward to seeing what he can achieve as he steps up to this new class.”
Posted on September 28, 2025 by Michael Le Pard
