Lombok Tengah, The Indonesia Post – Miguel Oliveira presented victory for KTM after conquering the wet track at the Pertamina Mandalika Circuit, Lombok, NTB, thanks to a fairly dominant performance at the Grand Prix of Indonesia on Sunday.
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo finished runner-up, 2.205 seconds later and Johann Zarco completed the podium in third place for the Pramac Racing team.
Attended by President Joko Widodo, the first MotoGP race in Indonesia after 25 years was delayed by an hour following heavy rains that fell ahead of the original schedule starting at 15:00 WITA.
After the track conditions were declared safe and the rain subsided, the pit lane opened at 16:00 WITA and the race started 15 minutes later with the number of laps being reduced by seven laps to just 20 laps.
On a fairly wet track condition, polesitter Fabio Quartararo crossed Turn 1 to maintain his lead, but on the second lap he lost two positions when Miguel Oliveira pushed forward followed by Jack Miller who pushed into the lead.
The Ducati and KTM riders started to leave their opponents as they kept the gap two minutes ahead.
Oliveira restored his position after overtaking Miller after the fifth lap while Quartararo was thrown from the podium zone after being overtaken by Alex Rins and Johann Zarco.
The wet track of the Mandalika Circuit proved not easy to be conquered by Francesco Bagnaia who was overwhelmed to find grip on his Ducati motorbike. Likewise Pol Espargaro who almost had a highside when he came out of the last corner to the main straight.
The new asphalt at the Mandalika circuit also made Pramac Racing team rider Jorge Martin lose grip on his front tire in the braking zone towards the first corner and fell into the gravel.
Several times setting the fastest lap, Oliveira left Miller 2.5 seconds behind with 11 laps remaining.
Zarco was involved in a fierce battle with Rins in the race for the podium and after scoring the fastest lap the Pramac racer managed to get past his rival to catch up with the two leading riders.
Rins lost his position again after widening the corner, giving Quartararo a chance to move up to P4.
With Oliveira barely five seconds ahead, Miller was threatened by Zarco and Quartararo looming behind him. The three riders competed fiercely for the podium in the remaining six laps.
Quartararo, one by one, passed the two Ducati riders relying on the agility of the Yamaha motorcycle in the corners.
Scoring the best lap into the last three laps, Quartararo tried to cut the distance of three seconds from Oliveira but the KTM rider had no major problems to be the first to cross the finish in Lombok.
Zarco secured the podium after defeating Miller who had to settle for finishing P4, while his team-mate, Francesco Bagnaia, was only able to finish P15.
Joan Mir was impressive in finishing P6 after starting from P18, as Rins outperformed his team-mate in P5.
Franco Morbidelli added points for Yamaha in P7, which was followed by Brad Binder (KTM) and Aleix Espagaro (Aprilia).
Darryn Binder became the leading rookie after finishing in the top 10 when his RNF Yamaha team-mate Andrea Dovizioso failed to finish the race due to a technical problem.
Repsol Honda team champion Marc Marquez was declared unfit for the race after suffering a terrible accident in the warm-up session. Previously Marquez had also fallen twice in the qualifying session.
Overwhelmed to find grip since the practice session, Pol Espargaro, who appeared fastest in the Mandalika pre-season test session, was only able to wrap up points for the Repsol Honda team in P12.
Qatar GP champion Enea Bastianini is still top of the standings with a total of 30 points after finishing P11 in Mandalika, trailed by Brad Binder who is two points adrift.
Defending champion Quartararo has moved up to third in the standings with 27 points, while Oliveira is fourth with 25 points.
After Mandalika, the fight for the MotoGP champions will continue in Argentina in the next two weeks. (mhn/bbs)
Comment