Pecco Bagnaia took victory in the Indonesia MotoGP sprint race. The Italian took advantage of a crash by Jorge Martín on the first lap while leading by half a second on the red bike to tighten the World Championship. Enea Bastianini finished second after another strong finish. Marc Márquez finished third after achieving another magical comeback, which only a privileged few are capable of.
Marc Márquez started twelfth after a double crash in Q2 which hampered the entire session as he was unable to complete a lap to set a time. But the man from Cervera once again worked magic at the start and gained seven positions, going from first to fifth place. Pecco Bagnaia imitated the Spaniard and gained three places. At the 1 p.m. stop, the Italian went around the outside to overtake Pedro Acosta and place second, in the wake of Jorge Martín.
89 came like a shot after breaking the pole record in qualifying. At the start, Martín managed to hold on to first place and seemed to have something more than Pecco. But in the last lap of the first round, everything changed after the fall of the World Championship leader. The race and the World Championship took a turn after the fall of the Pramac driver. Once again, a fall while leading in Indonesia cost the Spanish driver victory, as happened last year in the long race.
Jorge managed to recover the bike and return to the race, but he did so in the last positions. Following this fall, Bagnaia finished first, Acosta second, Bezzecchi third and Márquez fourth. He had to return to Martinateur if I wanted to scratch a point. Pecco took advantage of his title rival’s fall to take a step back and consolidate his place in first place. Behind, Mazarrón’s Tiburón took time and lost two positions with Bezzecchi and Márquez almost making it two in one. But Marco stays on the track and prevents the 93 from overtaking him.
The VR46 driver seemed to have something extra and Márquez followed him to hunt down Pecco Bagnaia. But Bezzecchi pulled away with seven laps to go and Marc, from Ilerda, placed second, gaining a total of ten places from his starting position. Amazing. Unfortunately, behind came The Beast with a frenzied pace. As always, Bastianini missed the race a little more after a bad start and ended up coming back to rejoin the first places.
Márquez resisted Enea as best he could at the end of the race. Pecco remained solid in this first position. But, with two laps remaining, the number 23 overtook the Spaniard and set off in pursuit of his teammate on the Ducati Lenovo. The eight-time world champion failed to hold off the future KTM rider, but ended up taking a magnificent third position after another spectacular comeback.
Bastianini gave everything in the final two laps to cut tenths from Pecco Bagnaia, but he was one lap away from overtaking him and taking the victory. Behind him was a dazzling Marc Márquez who once again worked his magic on the track to secure another podium. For his part, Martín entered tenth. The championship leader found himself on the brink of points after a mistake on the first lap caused him to fall while leading by more than half a second. Once again, Indonesia’s nightmare appeared for the Spanish.
Behind, Morbidelli ended up overtaking Pedro Acosta in the battle for fifth place. The Shark, who started third, ended up crossing the finish line in sixth position. On the Honda side, Joan Mir fell on the third lap and Luca Marini finished second to last. Now it’s time to think about Sunday’s race. Martín will try to recover the points lost in this sprint. His fall puts pressure on the World Cup. Pecco is 12 points behind Jorge.
