Jorge Martin literally did another sport in qualifying for the Indonesian MotoGP Grand Prix. The Prima Pramac Racing rider sent a loud and clear message to the competition: it won’t be easy to beat him at Mandalika, given that he took pole position with over half a second of margin over his closest pursuers.
To be fair, it must also be said that there are many drivers who did not have the opportunity to improve in Q2 due to a fair number of yellow flags, however the performance of “Martinator” was truly monstrous: in the first attempt, in fact, the Prima Pramac Racing rider even came close to breaking the 1’29” barrier with an extraordinary 1’29″088, a new Indonesian track record, which earned him the 19th pole start of his career in the premier class .
One of the yellow flags was caused at the end by Marco Bezzecchi, who crashed at turn 16. The Pertamina Enduro VR46 driver, however, did very well not to lose heart and to relaunch himself for a last attempt which even took him into second position, albeit distanced by a good 535 thousandths from Martin.
Completing the front row is Pedro Acosta who showed off a truly alien performance. We look at where the other KTMs will have to start, all of which remained out of Q2. The Spaniard, however, is without a shadow of a doubt one of those who were least affected by the yellow flags. Indeed, perhaps he was the one who was able to exploit the misadventures of others the most.
The one who probably paid the most was the reigning world champion Pecco Bagnaia, because his 1’29″745 is in fact the only timed lap he managed to complete in this Q2, being forced to give up all the others due to other people’s crashes. And Bezzecchi’s, for example, cost him a lap that would probably have put him in second position.
Among those who ended up on the ground there was also Enea Bastianini, the protagonist of a crash without consequences at turn 16, which however probably lost his concentration, relegating him to fifth place on the grid. A result a little below expectations for what he had shown on Friday. However, the pace shown in this morning’s free practice positions him for a leading role in the two races this weekend.
Completing the second row is Fabio Quartararo who continues to certify the great progress made by Yamaha after the summer break. Since the first race in Misano the French rider has now been a constant presence in the top 10 and this can no longer be a coincidence. Of course, it is still little for those who were world champions in 2021, but it is a first step forward in the right direction to return to fighting for the positions that count.
Just as Honda showed a good step forward, with Johann Zarco giving the Japanese manufacturer its best qualifying of the season with the seventh fastest time. The Frenchman had already achieved a Q2 this year, but this time the feeling is that the new aerodynamic package has made the RC213V take a more tangible step, even if the other three are still quite far behind.
Sharing the third row with the rider from Nice will be the two Ducatis of Fabio Di Giannantonio, who is gritting his teeth with his very sore left shoulder, but isn’t showing it too much this weekend, and of Franco Morbidelli, who unfortunately he is another who paid a very high price for the yellow flags, because in the morning’s free practice he had been the fastest, giving the impression of being able to aspire to much more than ninth place. In the fourth row we find the two Aprilias of Maverick Vinales and Raul Fernandez, who passed from Q1. Once again, however, the RS-GPs suffer from serious delays compared to the competition, because we are talking about more than 1″3.
And now we come to the most sore point of this qualifying as far as the big names are concerned, namely Marc Marquez: the Gresini Racing rider will start 12th having failed to complete even one timed lap and being the biggest producer of yellow flags. In the first attempt he crashed at turn 15 trying to hold onto Martin’s tail. Back on track with the second bike, he slipped to 10th to keep up with Bagnaia. In this case, however, he even crashed again while trying to restart, thus ruining the qualifying of many colleagues with a very long yellow flag.
Aleix Espargaro’s difficult weekend continues, as the Aprilia rider wasn’t even able to get past the Q1 cut-off, being beaten by just a handful of thousandths. Among other things, the Spaniard ended his qualifying in the gravel of the turn 1 escape route having slipped immediately after setting his 1’30″110.
It went even worse for Alex Marquez, because the Gresini Racing rider ended up with wheels in the air at one of the fastest points of the Indonesian track, at turn 8, and immediately seemed quite sore when he got up. A fall which for him also meant elimination and 14th place on the grid. Fortunately, the first indications on his physical condition only speak of a bad blow, with the driver from Cervera immediately going to rest in preparation for the Sprint.
Completing the fifth row is Alex Rins, who after the first attempt had also sensed the opportunity to give Yamaha a double Q2 that has been missing for a long time. In the end, however, the Spaniard was out by just over two tenths.
It was a disastrous qualifying to say the least for the official KTM team, with Jack Miller starting 16th and Brad Binder finding himself 19th on a track on which, albeit in the wet, the Mattighofen manufacturer had established itself with Miguel Oliveira (flew to Portugal after breaking his wrist yesterday) in 2022. However, the South African’s Q1 was also affected by a technical problem suffered by his RC16, on which the cover covering the rear brake broke, damaging the connection of the latter. Which forced him to return, preventing him from taking advantage of the second run to improve.
After having come close to getting direct access to Q2 yesterday, this morning Luca Marini was unable to be as incisive, because he will line up his Honda in 17th position, just ahead of the LCR brand driven by Takaaki Nakagami. Joan Mir still seems to be in a bit more difficulty, but he is 20th, with only Augusto Fernandez’s GasGas Tech3 behind him.
Q2 ranking
Q1 ranking
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