Bagnaia Salvages the Weekend with Win in the Indonesia Grand Prix

October 15, 2023Ray Milton
MotoGP

After losing out in the Tissot Sprint Race to Jorge Martin; losing his championship lead. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo) bounced back in the grand prix to win the race. The win also came at the expense of Jorge Martin who crashed out of the grand prix. Bagnaia started the grand prix from P13 after a disappointing qualifying session that saw him crash out of Q2.

After the race Bagnaia stated, “Incredible! I’m very happy, this win was so important. I was struggling at the weekend, my team again have done such an incredible job, I was trying to adapt, and they gave to me the maximum. This morning in the warm-up I was very happy with what they did, and, in the race, we won again… finally, because it was a long time without a win after the crash in Barcelona. I’m very proud of my team and my crew. I was controlling because I could see that Martin was pushing hard, but I said to myself to wait and see because it was a very long race. I was taking care about the tyres then when I saw the laps to go, I just tried to push again to put me in the front. Winning here and today and starting from P13 is very good. Now I’m ready to fight all the way to the end like always.”

Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo Return to the Podium

Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing) secured P2 in the Grand Prix. He finished 3 tenths behinds Francesco Bagnaia. However, the story in the race was behind as Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoG) started to track down the two front runners in the closing laps. Quartararo was lapping faster than the two ahead and if he had a few more laps in the race he might have caught them. Ultimately he came closest in the final two laps but couldn’t make a move and had to settle for third. Viñales survived Quartararo’s assault keeping the gap between them 1 tenth.

Marc Marquez Double DNFs on the Weekend

After crashing out of the sprint race, Marc Marquez crashed again in the grand prix. A disappointed Marquez stated, “The weekend started in a good way but then day by day, it became more complicated. Today in the race I kept calm, I was losing a little bit of ground, but I was not panicking. The aim was to finish the race and I was riding with this in mind. Unfortunately, at one point in Turn 13 I lost the front and I couldn’t save it. A tricky crash to understand but we start thinking about Australia.”

7 riders DNF’d in the grand prix shortening the field to 14 riders. Bagnaia’s win vaulted him back to the top of the table 18 points ahead of Jorge Martin.

Full Race Results are Below

Championship Standings