Jorge Martin… again! Martín won the Sprint race in Indonesia, his fourth, and more importantly… he is the new leader of the MotoGP world championship! The spaniard was always very close to the lead and once he got there, on the ninth lap, he never gave it up. He now has seven points more than Pecco Bagnaia.
The conditions for the Sprint race were much more favourable for the riders to show their best this time in Mandalika, with 32ºC in the air and 58ºC on the track. A curiosity: this was the worst place on the grid for Pecco Bagnaia since 2022, at the Portuguese GP, with the championship leader only three points ahead of Jorge Martín.
Here’s how the race started in Indonesia, with Maverick Viñales moving to the front:
Marc Marquez crashed shortly afterwards and was out of the race, and it wasn’t long before two other riders crashed: Aleix Espargaro and Brad Binder were involved at turn 16. Both riders were still in the race, but well behind the competition.
Martín was third behind Luca Marini, who had taken pole position, but he promised to attack the Italian’s position, even more so with the pace he was setting: Martín was the fastest on the track and with nine laps to go he was in second place.
With seven laps to go, that was the top ten:
Viñales was practically half a second ahead of Martín (0.499), but sector by sector the spaniard saw ‘Martinator’ getting closer and closer, and if the #89 was already virtually leading the world championship, he was clearly showing that he didn’t want to stop there. Marini was third and Marco Bezzecchi, still not at 100 per cent, was fourth, ahead of Fabio Quartararo. Bagnaia was eighth.
On the second sector of the ninth lap… confirmation: Martin was the new race leader.
The #12 seemed to be struggling and his tyres possibly didn’t have much more to give. Marini, on the next lap, moved into second and Bezzecchi was about to do the same, just 0.026s behind the Aprilia Racing rider: the Italian then moved into the lead but the Spaniard was able to respond and gain the position.
However, it was expected that sooner or later Bezzecchi would confirm the overtake, which he did, and the Mooney VR46 Racing Team had two riders on the podium.
The race was then over, without a scare for Martin at the end, who still secured another victory and… the lead in the world championship.