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Indonesian GP : Bagnaia takes vital win from 13th as
Martin crashes

Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia took a vital Indonesian Grand Prix victory

from 13th on the grid to retake the MotoGP points lead after runaway
race leader Jorge Martin crashed.
Pramac’s Martin moved seven points clear of Bagnaia after a dominant sprint victory on
Saturday and looked on course to inflict further damage on the world champion in
Sunday’s contest.
Taking the lead from sixth on the grid off the line, Martin was three seconds out front
when he slid off his Pramac Ducati at Turn 11 on lap 13 of 27.
While this initially promoted Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales to the lead, Bagnaia – who leaped
from 13th to third in the first three laps – would ultimately overhaul the Spaniard to take
the victory.
Vinales held onto second after reeling Bagnaia in over the last lap, with Fabio Quartararo
completing the top three on his factory Yamaha in an attritional grand prix.
Bagnaia now leads the championship by 18 points heading to next week’s Australian GP
and becomes the first rider in 17 years to win a dry GP from outside of the first four
rows.
Martin used the Ducati’s new start device to maximum effect to go from sixth to first at
the start, as Vinales and Quartararo slotted in behind him.
Bagnaia made a much more aggressive start to the grand prix than he did on the sprint,
getting up to eighth in the opening turns.
His charge continued as he found himself in sixth at the end of lap one and fourth at the
conclusion of the following tour.
On lap three Bagnaia took third away from Quartararo, who soon found himself behind
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Brad Binder on the factory KTM.
Bagnaia was just under two seconds away from the leading duo when he moved up to
third, as Martin began to twist the screws on Vinales.
The gap Martin had opened stood at 1.5s on lap five and was over two seconds come
lap 10.
As he started lap 13, Martin – who was one of only a few riders to go for the soft front
tyre – was three seconds clear of Vinales and appeared on course for back-to-back
grand prix wins.

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But Martin crashed going through Turn 11 moments later, releasing Vinales into the lead
and flipping the championship picture on its head.
On the same lap, Quartararo moved back into third.
This came about as Binder had to serve two long lap penalties for separate incidents:
the first was a lap two collision with poleman Luca Marini (VR46 Ducati), while the
second was for a clash with RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira on lap 11.
Aleix Espargaro’s fading soft tyres then made him easy prey for Quartararo on lap 13 to
move back into the podium places.
He duly hunted down the two riders ahead of him, with Bagnaia taking the lead from
Vinales on lap 20.
While he was able to get his lead out to just over a second at one stage, he came under
pressure over the final lap as Vinales and Quartararo closed in.
At the chequered flag, 0.433s covered the podium trio, with Bagnaia celebrating his sixth
grand prix victory of the year and his first since the Austrian GP in August.
Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio was a season-best fourth ahead of VR46’s Marco
Bezzecchi, who remains in outside contention for the championship at 63 points adrift
despite collarbone surgery just seven days ago.
Binder was sixth after his brace of long laps as KTM team-mate Jack Miller was
seventh, while Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, LCR Honda’s Alex Rins in his first GP since Le
Mans, and Aprilia’s Espargaro rounded out the top 10.
Takaaki Nakagami was 11th on the second LCR Honda ahead of Oliveira, Raul
Fernandez (RNF) and Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli, who rejoined after a trip to the pits
early in the race.
Both Pramac riders registered DNFs as Johann Zarco crashed two laps after Martin,
while neither Repsol Honda got to the chequered flag due to falls.
Tech3 duo Pol Espargaro and Augusto Fernandez suffered separate crashes, while
Marini pulled out on lap six after his tangle with Binder.