Jorge Martin wins Indonesian MotoGP; Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini DNF
Championship leader scores vital first Sunday w🐭in since May
MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin led from start to finish in a chaotic Indonesian Grand Prix a🧸s Pedro Acosta’s second-place ꦕis under threat from a possible tyre pressure penalty.
After crashing out of the sp𒀰rint 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 GASG♊AS 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 cheq💞uered flag in third.
However, Acosta 𓆉has been flagged for a possible tyre pressure infringement, which could ne🍸t 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 leaℱd down to 17 points.
Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez’s ℱtitle 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 re𝐆covered 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 Mar🌠co Bezzecchi (VR46), while Acosta would get ahead of Bastianini at T༺urn 16 two tours later.
The latter overtake gave Martin a 1.3s 🏅lead, while the two factory Ducati riders struggled for pace ൲in the early laps.
While Mart🐓in’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 t🧸hreat 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.
Gettin🌊g it down to around 1.5s a🅺t 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 thir𝓀ꦿd on lap 23.
Martin took the cheq🔴uered 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 ꩵwill boost Franco Morbidelli to his first grand pr🐽ix 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 nin♐th 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, whil♏e 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 remain🥃ing.
