Martin snatches “dream” MotoGP championship lead with Sprint quartet
A fourth straight Sprint success has rocketed Jorge Martin to the top of the MotoGP World Championship after Francesco Bagnaia struggled in Indonesia.
Martin charged from sixth to win a hot Indonesian Sprint race ahead of Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi, who pushed through the pain barrier to fill the podium after recent surgery.
However, the big news was Bagnaia battling to eighth and sacrificing a seven-point deficit to Martin in the championship as a result.
The reigning champion started in 13th, his worst qualifying performance in 30 races, and managed to make up five spots, but that was not enough as strangely Ducati allowed the sister bike of Enea Bastianini to finish directly ahead of the #1.
Australia’s Jack Miller had a quiet race, starting 10th and finishing ninth.
As recently as the Barcelona Sprint four weekends ago Bagnaia led by 66 points, while Martin has never led the MotoGP standings before and he was naturally thrilled.
“I feel super,” was Martin’s immediate reaction.
“Starting from sixth was not the best but at least I was able to overtake. Normally it is pretty difficult but I could fight Brad (Binder) Fabio (Quartararo) and all the guys.
“I thought I was stuffed because Luca was coming really fast at the end but we are leading the championship which is great.
“It is a dream but we have the same mentality and hopefully we can finish the weekend in the same way.”
With temperatures hitting 32 degrees, it was a hot and humid affair for the riders at the seaside and picturesque Mandalika International Street Circuit, which sadly had a noticeably small crowd.
Marini made the most of his first pole and led the field into turn one with Vinales slotting in behind.
However, the Aprilia got a great run out of the opening right hander and charged into the lead by the following corner.
Further back Miller and Bagnaia were battling side by side outside of the top 10, but they were soon both inside it after Marquez went down.
The Repsol Honda star crashed just 11 corners into the weekend where his move to Gresini Ducati became official, with the front washing out from underneath him.
With Bagnaia now stuck in 11th behind teammate Bastinanini, Martin was determined to pounce and took aim at Fabio Qaurtararo for third.
After some spirited resistance from the Yamaha, Martin soon made it stick on lap two.
Behind them Aleix Espargaro was trying to make amends for his slow start, slipping from third to sixth, but he also lost the front end and took out Binder in the process at the heavy-braking turn 16.
The two-rider crash critically vaulted Bagnaia into the points, who was struggling to find his trademark pace, but now two places ahead of Miller.
By lap five Martin had caught Marini and snatched second with an aggressive move on the VR46 racer.
The pass sent Martin into the championship lead with Bagnia down in eighth, but the Pramac Ducati rider had his sights set on Vinales, who was 0.8s further up the road.
However, within a handful of laps the gap had halved with Martin, Marini and Bezzecchi hunting the Aprilia down.
On lap nine Vinales had nothing left to fight with as Martin breezed by at turn seven and instantly built a solid advantage leading the race.
A lap later Marini replicated the move as both injured VR46 riders hounded for the Aprilia rider, who fought valiantly against Bezzecchi before falling short at the death.
Marini started to apply the pressure on Martin for the victory, but his challenge disappeared on the penultimate lap.
This enabled Martin to win by and lead the championship for the first time in his career.
He will be looking to take full advantage of Bagnaia’s lowly grid position in the Indonesian Grand Prix which begins at 18.00 AEDT on Sunday afternoon.
Photo by Gold and Goose / LAT Images
2023 MotoGP world championship
1 Jorge Martin 328 points
2 Francesco Bagnaia 231
3 Marco Bezzecchi 272
| POS | RIDER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/DIFF |
| 1 | Jorge Martin | SPA | Pramac Ducati (GP23) | 19m 49.711s |
| 2 | Luca Marini | ITA | Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP22) | +1.131s |
| 3 | Marco Bezzecchi | ITA | Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP22) | +2.081s |
| 4 | Maverick Viñales | SPA | Aprilia Racing (RS-GP23) | +2.720s |
| 5 | Fabio Quartararo | FRA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +3.121s |
| 6 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | ITA | Gresini Ducati (GP22) | +4.203s |
| 7 | Enea Bastianini | ITA | Ducati Lenovo (GP23) | +4.981s |
| 8 | Francesco Bagnaia | ITA | Ducati Lenovo (GP23) | +5.465s |
| 9 | Jack Miller | AUS | Red Bull KTM (RC16) | +7.852s |
| 10 | Miguel Oliveira | POR | RNF Aprilia (RS-GP22) | +8.942s |
| 11 | Takaaki Nakagami | JPN | LCR Honda (RC213V) | +12.034s |
| 12 | Johann Zarco | FRA | Pramac Ducati (GP23) | +14.015s |
| 13 | Augusto Fernandez | SPA | Tech3 GASGAS (RC16)* | +14.823s |
| 14 | Raul Fernandez | SPA | RNF Aprilia (RS-GP22) | +15.699s |
| 15 | Franco Morbidelli | ITA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +23.331s |
| 16 | Joan Mir | SPA | Repsol Honda (RC213V) | +24.894s |
| 17 | Pol Espargaro | SPA | Tech3 GASGAS (RC16) | +27.169s |
| 18 | Alex Rins | SPA | LCR Honda (RC213V) | +28.980s |
| 19 | Brad Binder | RSA | Red Bull KTM (RC16) | +43.090s |
| Aleix Espargaro | SPA | Aprilia Racing (RS-GP23) | DNF | |
| Marc Marquez | SPA | Repsol Honda (RC213V) |
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