Before the Grand Prix race scheduled for Sunday at the Mandalika circuit, the Ducati rider is four points ahead of Martin (Aprilia Racing), who finished 4th. This is the 23rd sprint race victory of Marquez’s career, the 8th this season.
The Japanese Ai Ogura (Aprilia-Trackhouse) and the Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati-VR46) finished 2nd and 3rd. The first two on the grid, the Spaniard Raul Fernandez (Aprilia-Trackhouse) and the Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing), fell at the first turn. Third in the general classification, Bezzecchi undoubtedly said goodbye to his last hopes of a title.
The collision occurred after Marquez got up to avoid the rear of Di Giannantonio’s bike, hampering Bezzecchi whose gap behind could not be avoided by Fernandez, author of the first pole of his career on Saturday.
Martin took the opportunity to move to the inside to take the lead ahead of Marquez, then managing to create a significant gap on the seven-time world champion. But, apparently the victim of a technical problem and briefly slowed down, he was passed by his rival five laps from the end.
The 2024 world champion then caught up, followed by Ogura and Di Giannantonio. However, with two laps remaining, Martin once again made a mistake, letting his two immediate pursuers pass. At the finish, the drivers were visibly affected by the heat and humidity, like Marquez.
The Catalan was successful in winning and leading the championship for the first time this season.
“It was a very difficult race from the start: I was trying not to let Martin go but it was complicated. Then I think he had a problem with the tire pressure or something and I was able to pass,” he said.
“As the laps progressed, I felt better and better and I tried to manage my lead at the end. It’s a good result for the championship,” underlined the title holder.
Marquez will now have to overcome the Indonesian sign that has hit him so far: in fact, he has never seen the checkered flag at Mandalika in four editions of the GP.
His rival is faced with the threat of the mysterious technical problems which afflicted him during the sprint race when he seemed faster.
Only fourth at the first corner, pole sitter Fernandez will have to make a better start on Sunday if he wants to hope to achieve his third success in MotoGP.
