Jorge Martin wins Indonesian MotoGP; Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini DNF
Championship leader scores vital first Sunday win since May
MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin led from start to finish in a chaotic Indonesian Grand Prix as Pedro Acosta’s second-place is under threat from a possible tyre pressure penalty.
After crashing out of the sprint race on Saturday and gifting the win to his chief title rival Francesco Bagnaia, Martin dominated the grand prix.
The Pramac rider led every lap from pole to beat Tech3 GASGAS rider Acosta by 1.4s in a race that has, for the time being, put his championship lead up to 21 points over Bagnaia he took the chequered flag in third.
However, Acosta has been flagged for a possible tyre pressure infringement, which could net him a 16s time penalty if he is found to have breached the rules.
This could have a huge impact on the race as it would promote Bagnaia to second and cut Martin’s championship lead down to 17 points.
Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez’s title hopes look over after the Indonesian GP, after the former crashed out of third while setting the best pace of the race while the latter suffered a technical issue.
Off the line, Martin eased into the lead ahead of Bastianini and Acosta, while Bagnaia recovered from a poor launch to hold fourth ahead of Marquez.
At Turn 3, a pile-up triggered by Jack Miller (KTM) took out Honda’s Luca Marini, Alex Marquez for Gresini and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro. No further action was taken on the incident after an investigation by the stewards.
Bagnaia was pushed down to sixth at the end of lap one by Franco Morbidelli (Pramac) and Marco Bezzecchi (VR46), while Acosta would get ahead of Bastianini at Turn 16 two tours later.
The latter overtake gave Martin a 1.3s lead, while the two factory Ducati riders struggled for pace in the early laps.
While Martin’s lead would fluctuate with Acosta behind him, he didn’t ever come under serious threat from the Tech3 rookie.
From around lap eight, Bastianini’s pace began to light up and the Italian proved to be the biggest threat to Martin’s victory.
Once Bastianini got clear of Bezzecchi on lap 13 and Morbidelli on lap 17, he streaked away from that group and ate into the gap to Acosta in second.
Getting it down to around 1.5s at the start of lap 21, Bastianini crashed at Turn 1 .
This boosted Bagnaia’s hopes of getting onto the podium, with the world champion getting into third on lap 23.
Martin took the chequered flag 1.4s ahead of Acosta, with Bagnaia completing the podium - but could be boosted to second should Acosta lose his fourth grand prix rostrum of the year.
A penalty for Acosta will boost Franco Morbidelli to his first grand prix top three since Spain 2021, after the Pramac rider was fourth ahead of Bezzecchi - as the pair made the soft front tyre work for them.
Maverick Vinales was sixth on the factory Aprilia, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo seventh.
Brad Binder was eighth for KTM, but also faces a tyre press investigation. Johann Zarco took Honda’s best result of the year in ninth for LCR, with Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) completing the top 10.
LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and Yamaha’s Alex Rins completed the top 12 as the last classified runners.
Augusto Fernandez (Tech3), Joan Mir (Honda) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46) all crashed out, while an apparent engine blow took Marc Marquez out of the grand prix on lap 12.
With DNFs for Bastianini and Marquez leaving them 75 and 78 points behind Martin, their title hopes look over with five rounds remaining.
