MotoGP Indonesian GP: Bagnaia wins sprint after Martin fall

Francesco Bagnaia regained ground in his fight with Jorge Martin for the MotoGP title after capitalising on his rival’s first-lap fumble to win the Indonesian Grand Prix Sprint at Mandalika.

The defending double champion had expected to face a challenge in getting on terms with Martin during the 13-lap encounter after the Pramac Ducati rider blitzed the field by more than half-a-second for pole during qualifying earlier in the day.

However, while Martin was successful in maintaining his advantage off the line, he couldn’t sustain it to the end of the opening lap after low-siding at the penultimate Turn 16 right-hander.

Though the slow tip-off allowed Martin to rejoin at the back of the field, the shorter sprint race distance limited his recovery to 10th place at the flag, just shy of the points’ paying positions.

Already the rider to benefit most from Martin’s lap-one slip by way of inheriting the race lead, Bagnaia didn’t put a foot wrong thereafter en route to his fifth sprint race win of the year. With a full 12-point swing in his favour, it means Bagnaia has cut Martin’s lead in the overall standings to 12 points.

Not that Bagnaia had it easy on his way to victory, the Italian soaking up pressure from a rotation of three Ducati riders all the way to the finish line.

Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marco Bezzecchi posed an initial threat once he’d recovered back to second place following a tardy getaway, only for him to slip back again after getting out of shape under braking for Turn 10 on lap seven.

Forcing him to let off the brakes to unkink the twisting GP23, while Bezzecchi was just inches from smashing into Bagnaia’s rear, he couldn’t prevent the machine from taking him well out wide and out of contention.

Marc Marquez was next to take up the fight to Bagnaia having made the most of a strong getaway to quickly surge up the order from 12th on the grid.

However, the Spaniard spent the final laps more preoccupied with defending from Enea Bastianini, second position eventually being decided in the factory Ducati rider’s favour after lunging through on the penultimate lap.

Behind another all-Ducati podium, Bezzecchi made do with fourth place at the flag, while Franco Morbidelli got the better of Pedro Acosta on the final lap to make it a Ducati 1-2-3-4-5.

Rookie Acosta took the flag in sixth place having faded from a bright start, the GasGas Tech 3 rider just holding off seventh-placed Maverick Vinales on the best of the Aprilias.

In eighth, Johann Zarco came good on his third row start to land a rare top-10 finish for Honda.

Fabio di Giannantonio nabbed the ninth and final point, the Italian crossing the line 1.4 seconds clear of a frustrated Martin.

Sprint race result:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	13	19'41.354		170.3		12
2	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	13	+0.107 19'41.461	0.107	170.3		9
3	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	13	+1.701 19'43.055	1.594	170.1		7
4	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	13	+3.072 19'44.426	1.371	169.9		6
5	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	13	+5.967 19'47.321	2.895	169.5		5
6	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	13	+6.210 19'47.564	0.243	169.4		4
7	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	13	+6.664 19'48.018	0.454	169.4		3
8	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	13	+6.938 19'48.292	0.274	169.3		2
9	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	13	+7.706 19'49.060	0.768	169.2		1
10	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	13	+9.104 19'50.458	1.398	169.0
11	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	13	+9.618 19'50.972	0.514	169.0
12	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	13	+9.843 19'51.197	0.225	168.9
13	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	13	+11.118 19'52.472	1.275	168.7
14	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	13	+12.418 19'53.772	1.300	168.6
15	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	13	+12.579 19'53.933	0.161	168.5
16	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	13	+12.952 19'54.306	0.373	168.5
17	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	13	+13.351 19'54.705	0.399	168.4
18	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	13	+15.496 19'56.850	2.145	168.1
19	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	13	+21.895 20'03.249	6.399	167.2
dnf	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	11	+2 Laps 16'54.684	2 Laps	167.8	Accident
dnf	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	1	+12 Laps 1'39.196	10 Laps	156.0	Accident
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