MotoGP

Saturday rain sets up crazy Mandalika MotoGP Q1

by Matt Beer
3 min read

Ducati’s main title hope Pecco Bagnaia, 2020 MotoGP champion Joan Mir and the works Hondas of Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro will be among the riders scrabbling to get beyond Q1 in Indonesian Grand Prix qualifying.

Rain on Saturday at Mandalika Bay meant Friday’s results settled who would progress to Q2 automatically and who would have to go through the first part of qualifying.

And that Friday order had been shaken by crashes for Marquez and Enea Bastianini that prompted yellow flags during the crucial late stages of practice two.

Morning pacesetter Espargaro and Bagnaia were conspicuously affected by that, leaving them 19th and 21st after day one, with Marquez only 22nd thanks to his heavy crash.

But even without the late disruption, Mir had looked up against it on Friday as Suzuki struggled to find pace from the revised tyre construction brought by Michelin in response to the late resurfacing at Mandalika.

The rain had stopped before practice three on Saturday morning and riders were rapidly onto slick tyres.

Times didn’t ever quite get competitive enough for those that needed to earn a Q2 place, though.

Marquez pressed on gallantly, topping most of the session. But his 1m34.067s benchmark was 1.2s off what he’d managed on Friday and two seconds away from the cut-off for getting into Q2.

Bagnaia was second fastest to Marquez in the session, 0.183s behind, ahead of the VR46 Ducatis of Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini.

The works Yamahas of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, Pramac Ducati pair Johann Zarco and Jack Miller, Qatar winner Bastianini, Ducati’s Jack Miller, Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro, KTM pair Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira and Mir’s unwell Suzuki team-mate Alex Rins are the riders automatically through to Q2 on the basis of their Friday times.

Rins was the best of that group in practice three in fifth place, despite having to scoot his bike back to the pitlane after a technical problem in the middle of the session.

Practice 3 Results

Pos Name Team Bike Gap Next Gap Leader Best Time
1 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 1m34.067s
2 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati +0.183s +0.183s 1m34.25s
3 Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati +0.1s +0.283s 1m34.35s
4 Luca Marini Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati +0.059s +0.342s 1m34.409s
5 Alex Rins Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki +0.224s +0.566s 1m34.633s
6 Pol Espargaró Repsol Honda Team Honda +0.01s +0.576s 1m34.643s
7 Jack Miller Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati +0.07s +0.646s 1m34.713s
8 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM +0.037s +0.683s 1m34.75s
9 Joan Mir Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki +0.09s +0.773s 1m34.84s
10 Andrea Dovizioso WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha +0.012s +0.785s 1m34.852s
11 Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha +0.09s +0.875s 1m34.942s
12 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda +0.005s +0.88s 1m34.947s
13 Remy Gardner Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM +0.113s +0.993s 1m35.06s
14 Alex Marquez LCR Honda Castrol Honda +0.067s +1.06s 1m35.127s
15 Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Aprilia +0.083s +1.143s 1m35.21s
16 Johann Zarco Pramac Racing Ducati +0.058s +1.201s 1m35.268s
17 Jorge Martin Pramac Racing Ducati +0.049s +1.25s 1m35.317s
18 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati +0.539s +1.789s 1m35.856s
19 Raul Fernandez Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM +0.088s +1.877s 1m35.944s
20 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM +0.395s +2.272s 1m36.339s
21 Darryn Binder WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha +0.965s +3.237s 1m37.304s
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