Jorge Martín fails and ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia gets involved while the Italian breaks the circuit record
The Italian Luca Marini (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) has achieved his first pole position and a new absolute record for the Grand Prix of Indonesia from MotoGP at the Mandalika circuit, where both the Spanish Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP23) and the Italian Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP23) failed in their objectives. Bagnaia failed in the first classification, in which he was left out of the second classification, eliminated by his own teammate Enea Bastianini, and Jorge Martín did not know how to take advantage of that opportunity and finished sixth in the final classification, including a fall.
The first classification had the special and important interest of knowing if the world leader, the Italian Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP23) would be able to make it to the second classification, because if not, it could get very complicated. his performance for the Indonesian race. And although initially the world championship leader got into the first ‘time attack’ between the first two, when he first entered his workshop that position had been taken from him by the Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP23), who took first place with 1 :30.713, ahead of also Italian Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha YZR M 1). At all times Bagnaia had Spanish Joan Mir (Honda RC 213 V) in the slipstream of his motorcycle, who thus sought to try to enter the second classification, while from his workshop the Spanish Jorge Martín, who could leave for Australia, leader of the world championship, was carefully observing the evolution of its main rival to achieve that goal.
In the second outing on the track, history was repeated again, with ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia pushing to make it to the second classification and, behind him, now with a little more distance, Joan Mir, but in his first attempt he failed and remained in third place. One lap later and although he failed in the second set, ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia managed to climb to first position, but behind him his compatriot Luca Marini (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) displaced him by 243 thousandths of a second and there was still a new surprise then Bagnaia’s own teammate, Enea Bastianini, ended up leaving him out of the fight for pole position by 99 thousandths of a second.
Everything was in Jorge Martín’s favor, because with ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia out of the second classification, the great opportunity arose before him to mark clear distances to achieve his goal of leaving Indonesia as leader of the MotoGP world championship. Thus, interest in the second classification focused on knowing who was going to be the fastest and problems soon began for some of its protagonists, as the Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) crashed without having set a time. of reference, although with the fortune of not being touched on the recently operated clavicle.
And he was not the only one, shortly after and on the same turn sixteen, Jorge Martín also went to the ground, perhaps pressured by the nerves of wanting to do well, by stepping on the piano too quickly in his attempt to return to the track as quickly as possible. Martín had to run back to his workshop to continue the session with the second bike and the second set of tires, without having set a good fast lap (1:31.403) and when the two Aprilia riders, the Spanish Aleix, were in charge on the table. Espargaró (1:30.501) and Maverick Viñales (1:30.598). With all the tension of the moment, Jorge Martín returned to the track to try to improve his situation and although with some errors, he dropped to 1:30.780 on his fourth lap to place fourth.
Aleix Espargaró once again became a reference by lowering the circuit record in his sixth lap with a 1:30.303, but behind him his teammate Maverick Viñales “pulverized” that record by lapping in 1:30.009 and still had to pass At the finish line, the Italian Luca Marini, who became the first to lap in 1:29, stopping the clock at 1:29.978, the only driver to lap in that second. Along with Marini, Maverick Viñales finished on the first line, 31 thousandths of a second behind the Italian, and Aleix Espargaró, with the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1), the South African Brad Binder (KTM RC 16) and Jorge Martin in the second.
The Italian Fabio di Giannantonio (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), Marc Márquez (Honda RC 213 V), who fell in the final stretch of the classification without consequences for his physical integrity, and Marco Bezzecchi will occupy third, with the Australian Jack Miller ( KTM RC 16), the Italian Enea Bastianini and the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia RS-GP), in fourth.