Bagnaia takes advantage of a gift from Martín who loses half of his lead

The roller coaster that this MotoGP season has become takes another turn, with Jorge Martín's mistake on the first lap and Pecco Bagnaia's sprint victory taking advantage of the unexpected gift. The championship is stumbling, while title contenders keep making mistakes; and challengers Enea Bastianini and Marc Márquez are getting closer.

Saturday started with Jorge Martín's stratospheric pole position, showing himself to be tremendously superior to his rivals on a single lap. The Spaniard was more than half a second ahead of his closest pursuer, Bezzecchi, while Pedro Acosta finished third, sneaking into the front row just ahead of Bagnaia. In a very eventful Q2, with four falls in just fifteen minutes causing yellow flags and countless canceled laps. The negative protagonist of this timed session was Marc Márquez, who fell twice. The first time following Martín and the second time Bagnaia. The rider from Cervera couldn't even set a time and had to start twelfth on the sprint grid, the same position he will have for Sunday's race.

From pole, Martín nailed the start and maintained the lead, while Bagnaia braked late and moved from fourth to second, following in the leader's slipstream. But the best start by far was Márquez's, who from the fourth row of the grid found an impossible gap to place fifth at the first braking point. "It was instinct," commented Márquez about his start. "It's true that I knew where I wanted to go, but that doesn't guarantee it will go well."

Still on the first lap, Martín began to pick up speed until at turn 16, the most delicate corner of the circuit where Márquez had saved himself on Friday and where he had already fallen in morning practice, he went down. "I had already fallen there before. It's an area with no grip; it's like ice," excused the Spanish rider, whose first reaction was: "grab the clutch, lift the bike and see if I could get any points." Although he immediately completed the maneuver, as it was still the first lap, the pack was still grouped and when he returned to track he was 21st and last, needing to reach at least ninth to earn points.

While Martín launched into an unsuccessful comeback (he reached tenth position), at the front it was all about Ducati. Although Pedro Acosta had made a great start and was second after Martín's mistake, in just four laps he saw how Italian bikes passed him without much trouble. First Bezzecchi and Márquez in one corner, then Bastianini. And Acosta fell back leading the second group.

Up front, the leaders opened a gap but halfway through the race, the quartet was reduced to three when Bezzecchi ran wide almost causing drama as he nearly took out his good friend Bagnaia. Halfway through the sprint Márquez found himself sandwiched between Bastianini and Bagnaia's official Ducatis setting a strong pace almost at qualifying times.

In the final laps, Bastianini began to harass Márquez. The Italian had more pace and it seemed only a matter of time before he passed him. The overtake came on the penultimate lap and Márquez didn't put up much resistance either. "He was closing in by 2-3 tenths per lap and I didn't want what happened to Martín in Misano to happen to me. I wanted to lose as little time as possible and besides third place was more than achieved after this Q2."

In that final stretch of the race Bastianini was fastest but didn't have enough time to challenge his teammate who managed an eight-tenths lead on the last lap to secure his fifth sprint victory, perhaps his most unexpected one yet. "I didn't expect to gain points here let alone 12. But I know tomorrow won't be like this. Jorge won't make the same mistake and a second place would be a good result in race," calculated a conservative Bagnaia who halved his deficit in standings exactly from 24 points down to 12 while Bastianini at 50 points behind and Márquez at 53 continue clawing back points.

Bezzecchi and Morbidelli completed Ducati's top five at Mandalika circuit with Pedro Acosta finishing sixth ahead of Maverick Viñales while Johann Zarco eighth gave Honda its first points in a 2024 sprint race Jorge Martín crossed tenth missing out on points by just over a second behind Fabio Di Giannantonio.

This Saturday at Indonesian Grand Prix also saw qualifying for smaller categories In Moto2 Arón Canet remains in great form taking pole ahead Dixon leader Ogura While Sergio García continued struggles starting 15th grid In Moto3 pole went Iván Ortolá although Valencian must complete double long lap penalty for deliberately slow riding during practice Veijer Furusato joined front row Leader David Alonso starts fifth Dani Holgado who suffered terrifying crash bike teammate passing over him could only manage 14th before race undergo medical check compete race