Hot on the heels of last weekend’s Emilia Romagna round, the ‘flyaway’ stage of the 2024 MotoGP World Championship kicks off with the Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika.
Despite Jorge Martin losing out on victory to Enea Bastianini on the last lap in Misano, Francesco Bagnaia’s seventh DNF of the season handed the Pramac rider a 24-point title lead over the reigning champion.
Bastianini begins the final seven rounds holding third in the world championship, 59 points behind Martin but just one ahead of 2025 replacement Marc Marquez.
Martin won last year’s Mandalika Sprint race to briefly take the 2023 title lead, before a mistake while leading the grand prix handed the initiative back to Bagnaia.
Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo joined race winner Bagnaia on the 2023 Indonesian Grand Prix podium.
FP1 starts at 10:45am local time (3:45am BST) with Practice - which decides the top ten riders with direct access to Qualifying 2 - beginning at 3pm (8am BST).
Jorge Martin moves to the top on his 4th lap, ahead of rookie Pedro Acosta.
All riders are on the medium rear tyre for the start of the session to save new soft rears for time attacks and the Sprint. But a full range of front options are being used.
The green flags are waved and MotoGP FP1 gets underway.
Due to the high temperatures (track temps can top 60 degrees) and stress on the tyres, Mandalika is among the circuits where Michelin brings a revised rear tyre casing.
But while 3 different rear tyre compounds were available last year, due to a recent resurfacing, riders will have the normal choice of 2 different rear compounds (alongside 3 front compounds) this weekend.
Meanwhile, Jorge Martin topped last year's FP1 session with a time of 1m 31.811s.
Let's see how that compares with this morning's best.
For reference, the official Mandalika MotoGP lap records are as follows:
Best lap: Luca Marini 1m 29.978s (2023)
Fastest race lap: Enea Bastianini 1m 30.906s (2023)
The chequered flag goes out for Moto2 FP1 at Mandalika, meaning the opening MotoGP session of the 2024 Indonesian Grand Prix weekend starts in 15 minutes.
Conditions are bright and sunny with an air temperature of just under 30 degrees.
As expected, the Mandalika track looks dusty - with several Moto2 and Moto3 riders caught out by the low grip.
