Alex Marquez “said bye-bye” to Indonesian MotoGP race - then got “lucky”
Alex Marquez feared his Indonesian MotoGP chances were over before the red lights even went out in Sunday's race.
On a day when older brother Marc was injured in a clash with Marco Bezzecchi, Alex Marquez extended his MotoGP points advantage over Francesco Bagnaia to 88 in his quest to complete a historic Marquez world championship one-two.
But the Gresini rider feared he had said “bye-bye” to his race before it had even started, when he was unable to engage his front holeshot device.
“I started the race in a really bad way. I didn’t engage the front device, so I said 'bye-bye' to the race,” he revealed.
“For lucky, I was able to make quite a good start, but I still lost some positions."
Despite Marc and Bezzecchi being eliminated ahead of him on the opening lap, he emerged one place lower than his grid position, in eighth.
“I didn't know which position I was in on the first laps. I was just trying to be constant and not make mistakes,” he said.
“The podium looked really far away, but suddenly, from one lap to the other, I said, ‘the group is there’.”
Having moved to seventh when Joan Mir fell, Marquez passed Fabio Quartararo on lap 10, Luca Marini on lap 14, Raul Fernandez on lap 15, Pedro Acosta on lap 22 and then Alex Rins on lap 23 of 27.
“I was in a train of the Yamahas, Quartararo and Rins, that were super fast with the soft rear in the beginning and it was impossible to overtake them,” he explained.
“But later on, I started to overtake and feel a little bit better. I did everything with patience. Just trying not to make mistakes.”
The pass on Rins put Marquez into second place behind runaway team-mate Fermin Aldeguer with just a handful of laps to go.
However, Acosta retaliated and Marquez finished a difficult weekend in third.
“In the last two laps, Pedro was faster than me,” Alex admitted. “He overtook me and I said, a podium is okay after all the problems that we had this weekend.
“It’s a good result. Last year, we suffered a lot here.
“On paper, this was one of my weakest [tracks] here in Mandalika, so we saved it in a really good way.”
With Bagnaia falling to score in either Mandalika race, Alex can now afford to lose an average of 21 points to the factory Ducati rider over each of the final four rounds and still claim the runner-up spot.
To put that into context, Bagnaia has only outscored Alex by 21-points or more in one round so far this season (Japan).
“We took many important points for our second in the championship - now we need to look forward to Australia,” he said.
The Australian MotoGP takes place from October 17-19.
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Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
