Marc Marquez took an unlikely victory in the Indonesian Grand Prix sprint race after a first-corner incident took out two other victory contenders and a series of problems for title rival Jorge Martin.
Martin appeared to be coasting to victory but had to cede position to Marquez and then made a mistake that dropped him off the podium.
With Fabio Di Giannantonio attacking for the lead into Turn 1 on the inside and Marquez trying to squeeze in between the VR46 rider and the Aprilias of Marco Bezzecchi and Raul Fernandez, it was close to a four-wide situation at the start - and it ended in disaster for half of the participants.
With Di Giannantonio taking a late-braking Marquez wide, Bezzecchi picked up the bike and ended up making contact with Fernandez on the outside, both going down as a result.
That first-corner dynamic meant Martin waltzed past, with sudden open road in front of him, to take the lead - and over the first few laps he stretched out a lead of over a second back to Marquez.
But he then slowed suddenly to deliberately wave Marquez back through, in what was presumably a bid to artificially raise his front tyre pressure and avoid a penalty for non-compliance.
This would tally, as Martin and his crew may have set his tyre pressures expecting to run in traffic, but instead he was into the lead from Turn 1.
Once Marquez was handed the lead, Martin quickly pushed back up towards him but struggled to line up any kind of move - and ran off-track on the penultimate lap to relegate himself to fourth place.
Instead, Ai Ogura and Di Giannantonio completed the podium.
It means Marquez now leads Martin by four points in the standings, with Bezzecchi 59 off the lead after his retirement.
Alex Marquez, Pedro Acosta, Fermin Aldeguer, Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo rounded out the points - Acosta having served a long-lap penalty for track limits that dropped him from fifth and in-between the Gresini riders.
Race result
1 Marc Marquez (Ducati) +0.000s
2 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +0.509s
3 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +0.835s
4 Jorge Martin (Aprilia) +1.947s
5 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +3.410s
6 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +5.478s
7 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +7.036s
8 Fabio Bagnaia (Ducati) +10.039s
9 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +10.248s
10 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +13.288s
11 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +16.834s
12 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +17.646s
13 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +18.285s
14 Luca Marini (Honda) +18.956s
15 Brad Binder (KTM) +19.227s
16 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +19.293s
17 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +19.562s
18 Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) +23.472s
19 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha) +23.834s
20 Aleix Espargaro (Honda) +38.336s
21 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) DNF
22 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) DNF
from The Race https://ift.tt/zJL3gwD
No comments: