Indonesian MotoGP, Mandalika – Race Results

*Rookie.

Francesco Bagnaia wins the 2023 Indonesian MotoGP from 13th on the grid, as the title fight takes another dramatic twist with rival Jorge Martin falling from the lead and handing the points advantage back to Bagnaia.

With Martin down and out, Bagnaia took the lead from Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales with 8 laps to go, by which time Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was hunting down the leading pair.

Quartararo became stuck behind his former team-mate Vinales, but Bagnaia was likewise unable to escape and the final laps began with the leading trio almost nose to tail!

Bagnaia held his nerve up front while Vinales continued to shut the door on Quartararo to cling on to second.

• Indonesian MotoGP: New World Championship standings
• Indonesian Moto2: Results
• Indonesian Moto3: Results

Pramac’s Martin, who began the race 7 points clear of reigning champion Bagnaia, blasted from sixth on the grid to lead before even reaching the braking zone for turn 1.

The young Spaniard, who had overturned Bagnaia’s 66-point advantage by outscoring the factory rider in the last eight races, built a safe three-second lead over Vinales when the front slid away at Turn 11, on lap 13 of 27.

Martin held his head in his hands, then looked on stunned from the sidelines as he tried to process what had happened.

That mistake gave Vinales a narrow lead over Bagnaia, who had put Saturday’s timidness to overtake aside with some brave early moves to slice from 13th to 3rd in the early laps.

After blistering issues in the Sprint, Michelin ‘strongly recommended’ not to again use the soft rear on the 70-degree track temperature for the full 27 lap grand prix.

But five riders rolled the dice and went against Michelin’s advice; Front-row starter Aleix Espargaro, 2022 winner Miguel Oliveira, RMF team-mate Raul Fernandez, Tech3’s Pol Espargaro and LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami.

Vinales, who faded from first to fourth with tyre blistering in the Sprint, was thus the only Aprilia rider on the medium rear but team-mate Espargaro’s soft tyre gamble began to backfire by mid-distance and he slumped down the order.

Softs remained the most popular choice for the fronts but Vinales (medium) and Bagnaia (hard) were among those to buck the trend. Had the soft front perhaps been Martin’s undoing?

Debut pole starter Luca Marini, runner-up to Martin in the Sprint, was battling with Quartararo for third early on when he was bumped off by Brad Binder.

Marini rejoined at the back, enabling him to serve his long lap from India before retiring. Binder – taken out by Aleix Espargaro in the Sprint – was given a long-lap penalty for sending the VR46 rider down.

The South African then sent Oliveira wide as he made contact with his former team-mate while breaking back into the top ten… Resulting in another long lap.

Binder went on to finish sixth, behind the injured Marco Bezzecchi and a career-best fourth from Gresini Ducati’s Fabio di Giannantonio.

“4

Martin was among seven riders on the DNF list, in the tricky conditions.

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez made it a double DNF weekend, ing out at Turn 13.

Like Marini, Enea Bastianini also had a belated long lap penalty to serve for causing a Turn 1 accident, at Catalunya.

The Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, where getting tyres up to temperature rather than overheating is likely to be the main concern, starts on Friday.

Reigning MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia came into the weekend just 3 points clear of a charging Jorge Martin, then lost the title lead for the first time since April when Martin outscored Bagnaia for the eighth race in a row in the Mandalika Sprint.

The Mandalika circuit was resurfaced (again) following last year’s race. There had been no prior MotoGP testing on the latest asphalt, while the extreme temperatures meant Michelin brought special heat-resistant stiffer construction rear tyres (as well as for the hard front).

Marco Bezzecchi’s title hopes took another blow when he fractured his collarbone in a training accident last weekend, the same injury suffered by team-mate Luca Marini when he hit the back of Bezzecchi at the start of the Indian Sprint. Undergoing surgery last Sunday, Bezzecchi joined team-mate Marini in a return to action this weekend.

Also making comebacks this weekend were LCR Honda’s Alex Rins (broken leg at Mugello), Lenovo Ducati’s Enea Bastianini (hand and ankle injuries at Catalunya) and Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez (fractured ribs in India). However, Alex Marquez withdrew due to the pain after Friday’s FP1.