Motorsport

Drama in Indonesia! MotoGP championship leader did not finish the race, the podium was fought until the last laps

The fifteenth race of this year’s MotoGP season, namely the Indonesian Grand Prix, offered great drama! Jorge Martin crashed out of first place, with Francesco Bagnaia taking the win for the first time in a long time. The fans saw many overtakes and also a fight for the podium until the last laps.

Published

12 months ago

15. 10. 2023

Tomáš Myšák

Already the composition of the starting grid at the beginning of the Indonesian Grand Prix promised great drama, and this was also confirmed during the race. Needless to say, after Saturday’s sprint Jorge Martin took the championship lead ahead of Pecca Bagnaiu.

However, he only started the Indonesian Grand Prix from sixth position, with Bagnaia even starting from the thirteenth starting slot. The full grid positions for the start of the fifteenth race of the season can be seen below.

What other twists of the tale are in store for us today? 👀

Here's the #MotoGP grid for the race later on! 🔥#IndonesianGP 🇮🇩 pic.twitter.com/QTU8eiQq7b
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 14, 2023

Start and opening laps

An absolutely fantastic start was made by the aforementioned Martin, who made the best of all the starting slots and after starting from sixth position, he took the lead of the Indonesian Grand Prix at the first corner.

On the other hand, Luca Marini, starting from the first position, had a terrible start. He dropped down the order at the first corner, and also collided with Brad Binder on the second lap and crashed. He therefore did not continue in the fifteenth round of the MotoGP season.

However, the KTM rider was investigated for contact with Marini, whereupon he received a long-lap penalty from the sporting commissaires. Another rider who crashed out of the Indonesian Grand Prix was Pol Espargaro, who fell at the last corner.

An amazing first few laps were recorded by Bagnaia, who moved into the elite five after the fourth lap. Martin, meanwhile, was protecting his lead and increasing his advantage.

More crashes, Martin crashes out of first position!

Martin, Viñales, Bagnaia, Espargaro, Quartararo, Oliveira, Miller, Bezzecchi, Binder, Márquez, Nakagami – that’s how the Indonesian Grand Prix standings looked after seven laps.

The leader Martin had a very good lead of one and a half seconds, also Maverick Viñales had over one second lead over the pair of Pecco Bagnaia – Aleix Espargaro

Marc Márquez has not had a good race weekend. He crashed in Saturday’s sprint and didn’t finish Sunday’s race either. The legendary Spanish rider crashed on lap eight at turn thirteen.

By the tenth lap, Martin already had a two-second lead. On lap eleven there was a fierce duel between Miguel Oliveira and South African Binder. The KTM rider again entered the fight in a somewhat indiscriminate manner.

Although he got up to ninth place, he pushed Oliveira off the track with his manoeuvre and he dropped down the standings significantly.

On lap thirteen, the spectators in the stands and on the TV screens witnessed more crashes. This time, Augusto Fernandez and Joan Mir were eliminated from the race after driving errors. Fabio Quartararo, meanwhile, finished Espargara in fourth position.

However, a huge shock came on lap fourteen. Leader Martin dropped out of first place after a mistake of his own, having already gained three seconds on his rivals.

The last third of the race, a big fight for the podium!

After Martin’s crash, Viñales was leading the Indonesian Grand Prix standings. However, the Aprilia rider’s half-second lead was quickly eroded by second-placed Bagnaia. Quartararo was third on lap 17, Jack Miller fourth, Aleix Espargaro fifth, Fabio Di Giannantonio sixth, Marco Bezzecchi seventh, Binder eighth, Takaaki Nakagami ninth and Enea Bastianini rounded out the top ten.

It should be noted that Bagnaia had a big lead (2.3 seconds) on third-placed Quartararo, but the Frenchman in Yamaha’s service managed to pull it back in the final laps.

Aleix Espargaro was dropping down the order significantly, and was up to tenth on lap 24. He was passed in turn by Bezzecchi, Bastianini and Alex Rins.

In the last three laps, it came down to a dramatic battle for the win, with Quartararo clearly the fastest of the three leading riders. However, the 2021 World Champion fought hard with Viñales for the final second place in the last two laps.

That suited Bagnai, who regained a lead of almost a second. However, last season’s champion made a mistake in the last sector of the last lap that cost him his entire comfortable lead.

In the last corner, however, the order at the front remained unchanged. Bagnaia therefore wins for the first time since his horrific accident in Catalonia and regains the lead in the drivers’ championship standings. He was joined on the podium by Viñales in second and Quartararo in third.

The full Indonesian Grand Prix standings can be viewed below. Only 14 drivers finished the race! The following drivers withdrew consecutively during this race – Johann Zarco, Martin, Mir, Augusto Fernandez, Márquez, Marini and Pol Espargaro.