Bagnaia got off to a good start and was quickly up into the top 6 positions during the Lap 1 itself. He continued to make progress and was soon able to put his Desmosedici in fourth place as KTM’s Brad Binder hit the side of poleman Luca Marini, who ended up in the gravel.
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Meanwhile, Martin had a splendid launch as the lights went out, and had a pre-race lead of 7 points over Bagnaia. Starting from sixth on the grid, the Spaniard went on to secure a healthy 3-second lead. However, instead of riding safely, he was putting in fast laps after fast laps and eventually losing control of his bike and crashing out at Turn 11 of Lap 13. Post Martin’s crash, Vinales was in the lead but Pecco had an opportunity to seize and boy, oh boy, how he seized it. The Italian soon hunted the factory Aprilia rider down to claim the maximum 25 points.
In the meantime, Quartararo was flying and was hot on Vinales’ heels but the Spaniard managed to keep him at bay and took the chequered flag at P2. At the end, the top three riders were separated by just half a second.
Fabio Di Giannantonio finished in P4, ahead of Marco Bezzecchi and the factory KTM duo of Brad Binder and Jack Miller, who secured P6 and P7, respectively. Enea Bastianini was close but couldn’t manage to overtake Miller and finished in P8 as Alex Rins, coming off an injury, and Aleix Espargaro rounded-off the top 10.
Marc Marquez, who is on his way out of Honda after a 11-year journey, couldn’t finish either of the races this weekend as the tricky Mandalika circuit only saw 14 riders crossing the finishing line.
The Indonesian GP, perhaps the most important race of the season so far, has changed the entire picture again. Martin’s crash was a major blow to his championship hopes.
On the other hand, Bagnaia’s victory was a major turning point in the MotoGP championship. He is now back in the lead of the standings but is far from being the favorite to win the title. The reigning champion now leads the title race with 346 points clinched so far as Martin closely follows in with 328.