Bagnaia wins from 13th to inflict maximum damage after Martin mistake

Francesco Bagnaia produced a world champion's performance in Mandalika as he went from 13th to victory at the Indonesian MotoGP, while title rival Jorge Martin crashed from the lead.

Robert Jones

15 Oct 2023

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati MotoGP Mandalika 2023

As expected, sprint winner Jorge Martin made a stunning launch as he went from sixth to first before turn one.

With Maverick Vinales in hot pursuit, Martin pushed on the pace as they began to break clear on lap one.

Also making a great start was Francesco Bagnaia, as the reigning world champion was sixth come the end of lap one.

Bagnaia made up even more positions on lap two after Brad Binder made a mistake at turn ten and hit Luca Marini.

The contact resulted in Marini going down and losing fourth place. Binder lost positions to Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro after running wide.

Clearly at fault for Marini’s fall, Binder was given a Long Lap penalty at the beginning of lap five, which he served one lap later.

After failing to finish the sprint race due to a lap one crash, Marquez suffered the same fate on lap eight of the grand prix. Marquez lost the front-end at turn 13.

Binder was then under investigation for a second time after hitting Miguel Oliveira at turn two.

The KTM rider dove to the inside of Oliveira after seeing the Portuguese rider run wide at turn one, but contact was made which led to his former teammate going off circuit.

Honda’s day then went from bad to worse as Joan Mir crashed on lap 12, which was also the case for Augusto Fernandez.

But it was lap 13 that produced the biggest shock as Martin, who was comfortably leading by over three seconds, crashed out of the lead.

Martin went down at turn 11 as he lost the front-end of his Pramac Ducati.

Martin’s teammate Johann Zarco also crashed out of the race at the same corner, while Binder was given a second Long Lap penalty.

At the front, Bagnaia began catching Vinales lap after lap before producing a brilliant move under braking at turn ten.

The overtake came with nine laps to go, however, Bagnaia was not the quickest rider on circuit as Fabio Quartararo was catching the leading duo.

Vinales then started coming back at Bagnaia with five laps to go, as he reduced a one second lead to just over half a second.

Despite Vinales and Quartararo getting very close on the final lpa, Bagnaia held strong to inflict maximum damage to Martin.