Written by Owen Bradley
Credit: Steve Wobser
Incredible Indonesia sees Bagnaia take back the championship lead, after an extraordinary weekend.
FULL RACE RESULTS
1st Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Lenovo
2nd Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing
3rd Fabio Quartararo, Monster Yamaha
4th Fabio Di Giannantonio, Gresini Ducati
5th Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Ducati
6th Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM
7th Jack Miller, Red Bull KTM
8th Enea Bastianini, Ducati Lenovo
9th Alex Rins, LCR Honda
10th Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing
11th Takaaki Nakagami, LCR Honda
12th Miguel Oliveira, RNF Aprilia
13th Raul Fernandez, RNF Aprilia
14th Franco Morbidelli, Monster Yamaha
15th Johann Zarco, Pramac Ducati
16th Jorge Martin, Pramac Ducati
17th Joan Mir, Repsol Honda
18th Augusto Fernandez, Tech3GASGAS KTM
19th Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda
20th Luca Marini, VR46 Ducati
21st Pol Espargaro, Tech3GASGAS KTM
Grand Prix
With Marini on Pole, Bagnaia outside the Top 10 and Martin lurking behind the leaders, starting from P6. Multiple riders were out of place, which was going to lead to a thrilling race.
Credit: Johanes Christo
Jorge Martin absolutely nailed the start of the race, jumping off the line and overtaking everybody. In the first 10 laps, Martin would absolutely dominate and fly off into the distance by over two seconds to the chasing Aprilia's of Vinales and Espargaro.
Brad Binder would run into Luca Marini at the slow right-hander coming out of the long straight, taking a slightly desperate move on the inside of Marini, clipping the Italian and sending him straight to the canvas.
The race settled into a bit of a lull for a while, however once the tyre wear really came into play, and with the circuit not being fully rubbered in, the riders began dropping the bikes. However, a monumental surprise, was Jorge Martin, our race and championship leader, would fall going into the quick right-left chicane, catapulting him well out of the championship lead.
Bagnaia would eventually manage to catch Vinales, who seemed to be struggling on the soft compound tyres, as 2021 World Champion, Fabio Quartararo, began hunting the pair of them down for the lead. Elsewhere, Marco Bezzecchi would struggle to move forward, being stuck behind the KTMs of Jack Miller and Brad Binder. Eventually, Bezzecchi did manage to get past Jack Miller, who began losing a lot of pace, likely due to the tyre wear and grip.
Credit: SONNY TUMBELAKA
A thrilling end to the race, where Quartararo and Vinales were catching Bagnaia. Unfortunately, with the riders not quite being close enough but also not wanting to risk crashing out, the result was to remain the same.
Bagnaia took an incredible victory, from outside the front four rows starting from P13, which was the first time since the Turkish Grand Prix in 2006, won by Marco Melandri. Francesco Bagnaia takes back the championship lead, by 18 points to Jorge Martin. Martin just made that catastrophic mistake, and this is certainly a race that could cost him a lot in the future.
But the round of applause must go to Marco Bezzecchi, who had a broken collarbone at the start of this week, and has managed to finish a long race, and a Sprint race as well. He managed to come home in a brilliant P5, and a result which ensures he still manages to stay just about within the jabbing range of the championship. He was set to go down to 75 points away from the championship leader, but due to Martin's crash, he's now just 63 points away, and chasing them in these last few races. It is still on for Bezzecchi.
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