Aprilia 1-2-3-4 as Martin reclaims MotoGP lead

Marco Bezzecchi claimed his first MotoGP win since May in the Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika, as Jorge Martin reclaimed the championship lead.

Aprilia locked out the top four, strengthening its various title bids, though lead Ducati rider Marc Marquez kept the damage relative to Martin relatively minor.

Bezzecchi had taken the lead at Turn 1 already but came in just marginally too hot to tighten the line and prevent poleman Raul Fernandez from cutting back on the inside and reclaiming first place.

But Fernandez, who had fractured the index finger on his right hand in the start crash on Saturday, appeared to be fighting a losing battle despite leading the first 18 laps - and Bezzecchi finally powered past into Turn 1.

Fernandez overcooked that corner and immediately surrendered any ambition of fighting for the win any further, instead focusing his energy on consolidating second place.

This proved a fairly straightforward endeavour ultimately as Martin never truly showed the pace to run with his fellow Aprilias out front, despite needing only until lap three to progress from sixth to third.

The most intriguing battles instead played out outside of the podium mix, in the contest for fourth place.

Pedro Acosta had made his way into fourth past Marquez but suddenly rolled off the throttle around the midway point in order to let Marquez through - seemingly to get some heat into his front tyre and avoid a potential tyre pressure penalty.

Marquez waved him back past a lap later, but two laps after Acosta again rolled out to spend some more time behind the Ducati.

All this played into the hands of fourth Aprilia rider Ai Ogura, who was only eighth in the early going.

Ogura had made his way past Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio, then followed Acosta through on Marquez towards the end of the race, then finally made a move stick on Acosta, too, with two laps left to run.

Marquez finished 11 seconds off the winner in sixth, so now trails Martin by two points coming out of Mandalika - which was also the situation before Mandalika.

Despite his win, Bezzecchi remains 49 points off the championship lead.

Last year's Mandalika winner Fermin Aldeguer looked like having an influence on the championship situation, too, but went down early soon after making his way up to fourth place.

Also crashing out from within the top 10 was Pecco Bagnaia, while Pramac Yamaha had a double-DNF - Jack Miller crashing and Toprak Razgatlioglu pulling into the pits, having dislocated his shoulder earlier in the weekend.

Behind Alex Marquez and Di Giannantonio, who had made it a Ducati 6-7-8, Fabio Quartararo was ninth for Yamaha, while Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini completed the top 10.

Luca Marini was the best of the Honda riders but could only take 12th after running ninth initially.

Results

1 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia)
2 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia)
3 Jorge Martin (Aprilia)
4 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia)
5 Pedro Acosta (KTM)
6 Marc Marquez (Ducati)
7 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati)
8 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati)
9 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha)
10 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM)
11 Brad Binder (KTM)
12 Luca Marini (Honda)
13 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda)
14 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati)
15 Alex Rins (Yamaha)
16 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda)
17 Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM)
DNF Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha)
DNF Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati)
DNF Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha)
DNF Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati)
DNS Aleix Espargaro (Honda)