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Autosport

Sport

MotoGP Indonesian GP: Martin demolishes opposition for Mandalika pole

MotoGP Ducati Honda Indonesia Mandalika (Geopolitical Entity) Jorge Martin KTM Aleix Espargaro Alex Marquez Johann Zarco

Jorge Martin doubled down on his status as hot favourite for Indonesian Grand Prix victory by blowing his rivals away en route to a sixth pole position of the MotoGP season at Mandalika.

The Pramac Ducati rider was in a class of his own after turning in a stunning lap record-breaking benchmark of 1m 29.088s.

Earning him a huge half-second margin over his nearest rival, his performance was made all the more impressive given the frequent appearance of yellow flags conspiring to ruin dozens of fast laps at critical stages.

The most pivotal of these would come late on as a consequence of Marco Bezzecchi falling at Turn 16, the Italian’s tip-off wreaking havoc on the best efforts of Ducati counterparts Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini just behind.

Despite this, it was Bezzecchi - having remounted and gotten back to the line with seconds to spare - that would ironically emerge as the big winner from his own error, the VR46 Racing rider going on to launch himself onto the front row in second.

Bezzecchi’s gritty last-lap effort would prove enough to displace Pedro Acosta down to third, though it remained an impressive showing by the rookie as the only KTM rider to qualify inside the top fifteen.

A disgruntled Bagnaia and Bastianini therefore made do with fourth and fifth respectively, the factory Ducati pair well-placed to challenge from the second row but no doubt wary of Martin’s huge advantage at the top of the timesheets.

Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo consolidated his strong showing on Friday to book a spot on row two in sixth place, his fine result overshadowed only by the efforts of Johann Zarco heading up the third row.

The second time this season a Honda rider has made it into Q2, the Frenchman - having progressed from Q1 - maintained his momentum to place the LCR machine seventh, ahead of VR46's Fabio di Giannantonio and Pramac's Franco Morbidelli in eighth and ninth respectively.

Aprilia riders Maverick Vinales and Raul Fernandez make up two-thirds of row four in tenth and 11th, the pair joined by a hapless Marc Marquez, who wound up 12th after failing to set a time. The Gresini Ducati rider fell victim to two crashes, his first occurring at Turn 15 before another at Turn 10 put him out entirely.

With Zarco and Fernandez progressing from Q1, there was disappointment for several high-profile riders further down the grid, not least Aleix Espargaro and Alex Marquez, who scuppered their opportunities by each crashing late on.

Not the first time either rider has hit the deck in Indonesia this weekend, Espargaro - who had been third quickest in the preceding FP2 session - eliminated himself with a slip at Turn 1, while Marquez suffered a fast get-off at Turn 8 having gone red on the timing screens coming through sector two.

Nonetheless, the crash would also bring out the yellow flags, which both nixed several other hot laps and assured Espargaro and Marquez 13th and 14th on the grid.

Alex Rins will get underway from 15th place, ahead of Jack Miller, whose fillip of qualifying as the best-placed factory KTM rider was undermined by him doing so in a lowly 16th. Still, he fared better than team-mate Brad Binder, who had technical issues to blame for qualifying down in 19th.

Zarco’s efforts notwithstanding, Honda will be disappointed to see Luca Marini, Takaaki Nakagami and Joan Mir land in 17th, 18th and 20th respectively on what is proving to be the manufacturer’s most competitive weekend of the season so far.

Q2 results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	9	1'29.088		174.164	318
2	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	9	+0.535 1'29.623	0.535	173.125	314
3	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	9	+0.583 1'29.671	0.048	173.032	319
4	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	9	+0.657 1'29.745	0.074	172.889	319
5	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	8	+0.704 1'29.792	0.047	172.799	318
6	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	9	+0.760 1'29.848	0.056	172.691	311
7	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	9	+0.854 1'29.942	0.094	172.511	312
8	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	9	+0.875 1'29.963	0.021	172.470	309
9	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	8	+1.019 1'30.107	0.144	172.195	316
10	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	8	+1.330 1'30.418	0.311	171.602	313
11	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	8	+1.436 1'30.524	0.106	171.402	313
12	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	2
View full results

Q1 results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	6	1'29.995		172.409	313
2	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	9	+0.067 1'30.062	0.067	172.281	314
3	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	5	+0.115 1'30.110	0.048	172.189	314
4	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	7	+0.248 1'30.243	0.133	171.935	312
5	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	8	+0.298 1'30.293	0.050	171.840	312
6	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	8	+0.390 1'30.385	0.092	171.665	313
7	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	9	+0.400 1'30.395	0.010	171.646	313
8	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	9	+0.435 1'30.430	0.035	171.580	310
9	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	7	+0.587 1'30.582	0.152	171.292	317
10	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	8	+0.703 1'30.698	0.116	171.073	313
11	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	8	+1.091 1'31.086	0.388	170.344	313
View full results