Martin wins Indonesian Grand Prix

After the Sprint race on the Saturday of the Indonesian Grand Prix, Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Ducati) must have thought he was under some sort of Lombok curse as he crashed out yet again while leading, gifting title rival Pecco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) 12 important points.

But when the lights went out on Sunday, the Spaniard took the holeshot from pole position and was never ceded, taking a dominant victory in the 27-lap grand prix, his first Sunday win in over four months.

Bagnaia’s rear tyre spun on the start line, leaving the reigning world champ back in fourth at the first turn, with Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) and Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac Ducati) relegating him to sixth a few corners later. Up ahead, teammate Enea Bastianini (Lenovo Ducati) and front-row starter Pedro Acosta (Tech3 GasGas) took off after Martin who, with a clear track, put nearly three quarters of a second between himself and the chasing pack on the first circuit.

While it took Bastianini a few laps to get his medium rear tyre up to working temperature, Acosta pounced on the Italian on lap four, followed quickly by Morbidelli and then Bezzecchi, the two satellite riders wanting to make the most of their soft rear-tyre choice. 

By now Bagnaia was locked in an unlikely battle for sixth place between himself, Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati). And while the latter two scrapped it out in what looked like a largely unnecessary run of position swapping, and which ultimately landed Diggia in the gravel, Bagnaia found his rhythm and Marquez was left over a second behind the factory man in seventh. And even though the eight-time world champ put his head down to try and make up the time, it was all for nothing when his engine caught fire just three laps later.

The second factory Ducati was also now finding pace that eluded him early on in the race as Bastianini relegated Bezzecchi to fifth on lap 13. And as he caught but struggled to find a way past Morbidelli, he found himself in a tight four-way battle for the final podium spot, as Martin held a one-second lead over rookie Acosta who, in turn, had 1.4sec over Morbidelli.

At the half-way point of the race, Bastianini’s hard-front-medium-rear choices began to pay off. He eased past Morbidelli at Turn 12 with 10 laps to go and had a pace no one else on circuit could match, not even the leaders. The next time around he was six tenths of a second quicker than Acosta and three-and-a-half tenths quicker than Martin. He put in his personal best lap of the race on lap 19, posted a new best race lap on lap 20, and just as it looked as if he might have enough time to challenge Martin for the victory, he lost the front at Turn 1 to start lap 21.

Not only did that promote Morbdelli back to third place, but the battle for fourth between the three VR46 Academy riders now became a battle for the final podium spot with six laps left to run.

Bezzecchi made fourth place easy for Bagnaia with a mistake at Turn 10 on lap 22, who then made light work of Morbidelli the next time around with some help from his ride-height device to make sure he shot past the Prima Pramac rider quickly and cleanly. And while the two satellite riders asked everything of their soft rear tyres to keep the factory man at bay, Bagnaia wasn’t going to let 16 important points go to anyone else, eventually crossing the line in third place behind Acosta, and a full second clear of Morbidelli and Bezzecchi.

Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing) was the next best in sixth place, albeit over five seconds behind Bezzecchi’s Ducati and two seconds ahead of Fabio Quartararo (Monster Yamaha) in seventh.

Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) was eighth, ahead of Johann Zarco (LCR Honda), Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) and Alex Rins (Monster Yamaha). A tyre-pressure infringement relegated Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda) one place to 12th and last, after nine of the 21 starters failed to see the chequered flag.

Aussie Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM) failed to see just the third corner after causing a four-rider crash on the opening lap which involved Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing), Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Luca Marini (Repsol Honda).

With both Bastianini and Marquez scoring no points in Indonesia, the 2024 title race looks to again be a straight shootout between Martin (366) and Bagnaia (345), with 21 points separating the two rivals. Bastianini (291) is now 75 points adrift in third, with Marquez (288) 78 points back. Miller (58) drops to 15th overall.  

The series heads straight to Japan’s Twin Ring Motegi this weekend where Martin will be hoping to replicate the double victory he enjoyed last year.