Mandalika gave MotoGP one of the best sprints of the 2025 campaign as Marco Bezzecchi went first-to-eighth-to-first - and a lot of things happened in front and behind him while he was doing it.
Let's wrap up some of the most important storylines with a look at the winners and losers of the race.
Winner - Marco Bezzecchi (1st)
Given he was over three seconds back as the race approached its halfway point, Bezzecchi's comeback to win was highly improbable - but the two key moments to making it possible had already happened earlier.
One: Marc Marquez taking Alex Rins more or less out of the race with an ill-judged Turn 10 move had the extra effect of removing Marquez himself from contention. Even without the subsequent penalty, the lunge had dropped him behind Bezzecchi - and, going by his late-race pace, he would've been a handful to overtake otherwise.
Two: Fermin Aldeguer's mistake losing the front at Turn 16 on the opening lap probably cost him around four tenths and eroded a lead that was looking like it might become comfortable. Bezzecchi definitely needed those four tenths.
But a recovery like that will always be a game of margins, and the other side of the coin is that without the bad start Bezzecchi would've had this race won by lap two or three.
He is just so, so much quicker than anyone else this weekend.
Loser - Pecco Bagnaia (14th)
Let's leave aside for a second the mysteries of spec and take the weekend on its own.
Pecco Bagnaia was not fast in Friday practice, was not fast in Saturday practice, was not fast in Saturday qualifying. He was not necessarily alone in this - a lot of the Ducatis are struggling - but he is coping the worst.
The laptimes from the race look like he just gave up. But, for his sake, it's maybe almost better if he did.
Winner - Fermin Aldeguer (2nd)
Aldeguer probably could've won this - you can say 'should've' if you're strict - but let's not forget he's kind of bailing Ducati out this weekend so far.
While some of his more experienced peers are riding a bit messily and others are just off the pace, the 20-year-old has thrived in the resulting power vacuum.
"After leading all the race with a good pace, to finish second is not fun," Aldeguer admitted to TNT Sports. "But I knew - and the team knew - that Bezzecchi's pace was better than ours
"Nice battle. We have to be happy."
Loser - Marc Marquez (6th)
Long Lap Penalty for @marcmarquez93 after this Lap 1 contact with @42rins ⚠️#IndonesianGP 🇮🇩 pic.twitter.com/Rk9SSUd86e
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 4, 2025
There are extenuating circumstances to Marquez's botched move on Rins - it would've gone much better for both if not for Marquez having to adjust the line to avoid contact with Luca Marini's Honda - but ultimately he acknowledged it was his "mistake", apologised to Rins and took no issue with the penalty.
"I couldn't control on that first lap on the first hard braking point, I jumped in on the dirty part a bit, started to slide the rear - plus the slipstream of the front riders..."
His race was quite good otherwise, but Marquez doesn't expect a podium challenge tomorrow and it's clear that, even within the context of the wider Ducati malaise, he just hasn't quite cracked the Mandalika puzzle yet.
Winner - Raul Fernandez (3rd)
Aprilia's Mandalika form means Raul Fernandez has the most competitve bike he's ever had in MotoGP this weekend - and that has allowed him to produce the best race of his MotoGP career. Let's not get too carried away - there's still a gap to Bezzecchi, who was well behind and ended up well ahead - but this was an important race for Fernandez to see out and a super-important result to get.
"A little bit nervous" on the final lap - and mindful of the fact his previous best opportunity, in the Barcelona sprint last year, was lost to a crash - Fernandez feels things are finally clicking for him in the premier class.
And he particularly talked up the effect his brother, Adrian, who starts tomorrow's Moto3 race on pole, has had on calming him down.
"When you have four very difficult years, sometimes you think too much about the situations. Thanks to him, I've tried to be focused on my job, tried to enjoy it in the difficult moments - and thanks to him I got this podium."
Loser - Alex Rins (12th)
Initially "angry" at Marquez but relatively forgiving once he saw the replay, Rins seemed to be able to put the disappointment of the sprint aside and focus on the positive of qualifying fourth - his best yet for Yamaha and his first top 10 start in three months.
"I'm super happy because there was a long time, really long time, that I couldn't feel as I'm feeling [today] on the bike,” he said.
"Already in Motegi we did a step forward in terms of reducing the speed of the bike, to enter in the corner, to not miss the apex, the correct line."
But one good chance has gone today, and it might be more difficult tomorrow on the medium rear tyre - which will be even more difficult to warm up, and which the Yamahas might well struggle a lot more with in the early laps.
Plus, Rins potentially got away with one today after his Marquez incident. First, he rejoined the track a bit sketchily in the immediate aftermath - secondly, though no clear footage is available save for the onboard of a very-distant-already Bagnaia, it appears he may have done Enea Bastianini quite wrong in the later move that triggered the KTM rider's crash.
Loser - Pedro Acosta (DNF)
Can you really be all that annoyed at Pedro Acosta for leaving a bunch of points on the table by crashing from the lead group when for yet another weekend none of the other KTM riders are anywhere near competitive?
In year two of the Pedro experience... yeah, maybe. It's been clear for a while his major weakness in the premier class has been an inability to accept limitations, and days like today bring into question just how much progress he's made in that area.
He expects to be on the safer side tomorrow with the switch from the soft rear to the medium.
Loser - Luca Marini (13th)
The front tyre pressure penalty finished off Marini's sprint but it was already ruined by then, the bike "unrideable" early on and then Marini having to deliberately drop back to try to artificially spike the tyre pressure - to no avail.
"Another opportunity lost" is how he described it, and Sunday suddenly feels quite high-stakes in terms of getting something out of a weekend that had started so promisingly.
Loser - Jorge Martin (not present)
Ai Ogura also belongs in this category, to a lesser extent, but it's more glaring for Martin.
The way the Aprilia RS-GP looks here, and the way he's historically gone at Mandalika, means a first Aprilia podium here would've been nailed on had he just kept himself fit.
No dice - and Aprilia has already confirmed he won't be there at Phillip Island in a fortnight either.
