Bagnaia Wins Indonesian GP Sprint as Jorge Martin crashes from lead

Francesco Bagnaia won the MotoGP Indonesian GP Sprint race after the championship leader, Jorge Martin, crashed from the lead on Lap 1. Bagnaia has halved the gap between himself and Martin in the championship going into the Indonesian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Bagnaia would come under threat later in the race by teammate Enea Bastianini, and future teammate Marc Marquez. However, the Italian would thwart his rivals, who also close in the championship after Martin’s enormous error.

Martin would initially control the start of the race, with Bagnaia managing to get an impressive launch, putting his Ducati into second place after just the first corner, having started from fourth. Marc Marquez would also get a phenomenal start from 12th on the grid, gaining five places after exiting the first corner, as the Spaniard chased after the leading pack.

However, as the riders approached the tough, long, winding triple right hander of Turns 14, 15 and finally the extremely difficult Turn 16 – Jorge Martin would crash at the apex of the corner, the Prima Pramac bike coming under enormous front-end pressure, as the championship leader eased the brake off, with the bike sliding out from underneath him.

Martin would quickly rejoin the race, immediately setting after the rest of the field in the hope to score points, overtaking multiple riders on some laps. Martin would however be unable to score points, finishing in 10th place, just one position away from a points finish.

Marco Bezzecchi would run in second place after Martin’s crash, setting multiple fastest laps on the way to closing down on Bagnaia. However, the Italian would get his VR46 Ducati all crossed up under braking, almost running into Bagnaia and taking them both out of the race. Bezzecchi would have to yield the corner at Turn 10, losing two places as Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini closed on Bagnaia.

Elsewhere through the field, a five-wide battle between Fabio Quartararo, Johann Zarco, Pedro Acosta and Fabio Di Giannantonio would rage on, each of the riders taking different racing lines as Zarco pulled off a double overtake at the major expense of Fabio Quartararo, who sunk back through the field and out of the points after a solid start.

Enea Bastianini would attempt to get through on Marc Marquez in the closing laps, the Italian almost finding a run on Marquez at the tough triple-right handers of Turns 5, 6 and 7 – before eventually finding a run into Turn 10 and solidifying his move on the penultimate lap. Bastianini would attempt to close an eight tenth gap to teammate Bagnaia on the final lap.

Unable to quite make an overtake, Bastianini would close the gap to his teammate by over half a second. Bastianini would finish in second place and closes to 50 points off Jorge Martin in the World Championship, with Marc Marquez finishing third, closing to just 53 points from Martin.

However, against all odds after a tricky start to the weekend, Francesco Bagnaia would come home to take the chequered flag in Mandalika, the reigning champion now closing to just 12 points of Martin in this championship thriller.

MotoGP returns at 08:00am on Sunday morning in the UK for the Indonesian Grand Prix.

MotoGP Indonesian Sprint Race – Results

1st Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati
2nd Enea Bastianini, Ducati
3rd Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing
4th Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Ducati
5th Franco Morbidelli, Prima Pramac
6th Pedro Acosta, Red Bull GasGas KTM
7th Maverick Vinales, Aprilia
8th Johann Zarco, LCR Honda
9th Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Ducati
10th Jorge Martin, Prima Pramac
11th Jack Miller, Red Bull Factory KTM
12th Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha
13th Brad Binder, Red Bull Factory KTM
14th Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
15th Alex Rins, Yamaha
16th Aleix Espargararo, Aprilia
17th Takaaki Nakagami, LCR Honda
18th Luca Marini, Repsol Honda
19th Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
DNF Augusto Fernandez, Red Bull GasGas KTM
DNF Joan Mir, Repsol Honda

Featured Image: Ducati Corse Media