Indonesian MotoGP:’ I’d done 14 races without a mistake, so it was coming sooner or later’

When the lights went out it was full Martinator mode all over again. He started like a jet, flying from the second row to lead into Turn 1 and away he went. Maverick Viñales tried to go with him but it was a hopeless task.

Martin was fully in the zone, just like he’d been at Misano, Buddh and Motegi. On another level to everyone else. Sometimes three- or four-tenths faster than the rest of the grid, he was in a race all of his own. By lap 10 he was 2.5 seconds in the lead. Basically, he had the race won.

And then came lap 13. He flicked the bike into Turn 11 and down he went. He got up, saw the bike was wrecked, held his head in his hands and did the walk of shame through the gravel trap.

He had lost the championship lead, 24 hours one minute and ten seconds after taking it.

“When I saw, ‘Plus 2.8’ I was really surprised and said, ‘OK, maybe it’s time to keep calm now’. Then I was one metre wide at corner 10, where it was a bit dirty, so when I went into 11 I lost the front. I made a mistake. Shit happens.”

Martin’s front slick had picked up some dirt as he accelerated out of the Turn 10 right-hander and those few specks were all it took to critically reduce grip as he rode into the Turn 11 right.

“There were 14 laps to go, so I was still focused on being fast and feeling super good with the soft front (which most of the grid had chosen). It was corner 10 that made me crash. I’d done 14 races without a mistake, so it was coming sooner or later, and it happened here.

“I think I did an amazing race until that point. I am the fastest at the moment, so I have to be calm. There are still ten races to go, so it’s still a long way.

Going into the weekend, when Martin was three points behind Bagnaia, he had told journalists that it’s better to be the hunter than the hunted.

“Now I’m chasing again, so I hope Pecco is a bit scared!” he grinned.

But I doubt that.

If Martin’s demolition of the pack had been mightily impressive, Bagnaia’s charge from 13th on the grid to victory was perhaps more so

In fact it was historic. The last time anyone won a race from so far back on the grid was 17 years ago, when Marco Melandri won the 2006 Turkish GP from 14th.

And to do it on such a one-line track, after a miserable two days, was very special. Once again Bagnaia had proved he doesn’t crack under pressure. Precisely the opposite in fact. It emboldens him.

And all that talk about not pushing other riders off-line… It seemed like he had gone to bed on Saturday night as Dr Jekyll and woken up Sunday morning as Mr Hyde. On the first lap he passed seven riders, including Aleix Espargaró, with whom he made contact.

No doubt he was feeling strong because this was the first time he’d been fully fit since Le Mans, where he crashed out, breaking bones in his hands and feet. And once he was over those injuries he had that massive highside at Barcelona, after which Brad Binder ran him over.

“This weekend was the first without problems with the leg. That was a really difficult period – we were struggling to get results, so we really needed this victory to get this feeling again.”

The atmosphere in Bagnaia’s garage couldn’t have been more different than the previous day. Team manager Davide Tardozzi and Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti were so frenzied in their celebrations they looked like they might keel over at any moment.

“After Jorge crashed it was so important to win the race and not commit any mistakes, because it was very easy to lose the front,” added Bagnaia. “I was always having moments because I couldn’t race the soft front – I was struggling a bit with the hard but it was the best choice.”

The crucial change from Saturday was using the medium rear, because, happily for Bagnaia, some riders had their soft rears blister during the 13-lap sprint, so much so that Michelin told everyone not to use the soft for the GP. The medium rear made his Desmosedici smoother and easier to handle.

Bagnaia had landed on Lombok Island, 30 miles east of Bali, leading the championship by three points. On Saturday evening he trailed Martin by eight. When he boarded the plane on Monday, bound for Phillip Island and next weekend’s Australian GP, he was 18 points in front. Talk about a rollercoaster.

And what about all this overtaking? I could be wrong but there seems to have been more passing at recent races than for some while. There certainly was at Mandalika, where for all kinds of reasons there shouldn’t have been any. So what’s going on?

MotoGP’s controversial minimum tyre pressure regulation was due to be introduced at the start of this season, so team engineers have been working feverishly since pre-season testing to somehow get the front tyre working in that crazy-narrow range between 1.88 bar (the minimum allowed) and 2.1 bar (after which the footprint shrinks, grip reduces and the rider most likely crashes).

Meanwhile the riders have been doing their own work on this issue – not only trying to survive at 2.1 bar or more but actually trying to ride fast despite the lack of grip. One rider told me recently, “I am now used to the front locking on the brakes and tucking into the corners”.

This reminds us that these riders have otherworldly skills. Their ability to adapt their techniques to ride around problems that would probably kill you or me (like the front tyre locking at 200mph) are close to supernatural.

And not only have they learned to cope with less grip and go as fast as ever, they’ve also learned new ways to overtake: don’t follow the rider in front looking for a way past, because the roasting-hot wake from his bike will overheat your front tyre and you won’t have enough grip to attack.

“You need to be really clever: prepare two or three corners before overtaking”

Instead you have to carefully plan your attack through a certain sequence of corners. You hang back a little, open a little gap, then use two or three corners to get a run on your prey, so you approach your chosen overtaking place faster, so you can get alongside on the brakes and steal the inside line.

That’s exactly what Martin kept doing on Saturday. “You need to be really clever, to prepare really well two or three corners before the overtake point,” he said. “I did that and it worked.”

The engineers and team tyre specialists have also worked super-hard on this issue. They’ve adapted bike balance to reduce the stress on the front tyre and each weekend they do many hours of homework and data analysis to choose the correct starting pressure, so temperature and pressure don’t go sky high, rendering their rider to also-ran status. This can mean starting very low, as low as 1.4 or 1.5 bar.

At Mandalika some teams did a perfect job in this area. Others didn’t. More riders than ever before were found to have raced with the front tyre below the minimum for more than half the race: Marco Bezzecchi, Aleix Espargaró, Franco Morbidelli and Augusto Fernandez.

These were all first offences, so they got away with a warning. Next time they’ll get time penalties. And next season any rider under the limit will get disqualified.

Espargaró deserves a special mention here. The Aprilia was the best bike at Mandalika. The RS-GP loves flowing circuits, where there’s not too much stop and go, so Espargaró and team-mate Viñales were having a great weekend.

Espargaró’s started to go wrong when he crashed out of the sprint, trying to pass Binder and taking the South African with him. Espargaró apologised for his misdemeanour but had huge hopes for Sunday.

“I really believe I can go faster than Martin and go away,” he said.

And then he inexplicably chose the soft rear, which (surprise, surprise) didn’t even last half the race. He finished half a minute behind Viñales, who inherited the lead when Martin crashed but had no answer to Bagnaia’s surge to the front.

And then Viñales came under pressure from Quartararo, who was flying, using the Yamaha’s corner speed through the fast corners. The 2021 champ quickly caught Viñales and had the pace to go after Bagnaia and have a crack at his first victory of the year.

But as soon as he caught Viñales he was basically beaten. The M1 doesn’t have the corner-exit traction or the horsepower to attack the Aprilia, or for that matter, the Ducati. We’ve all heard the story before, but here goes…

“When I ride alone I can use my riding style but when I’m behind basically all the other bikes we ride totally different to them, so we cannot overtake,” said Quartararo. “We need more power, so we can be closer at the end of the straights and try on braking.”

It’s only conjecture, but it would’ve made for a fascinating last few laps if Quartararo had got past Viñales and been able to attack Bagnaia, because things get interesting when one rider fighting for victory has nothing to lose and the other has everything to lose.

Anyway, Quartararo was happy enough, because this was his first GP podium since COTA in April. And this time he finished four-tenths behind the winner, not five seconds.

Fabio Di Giannantonio was in tears after his best-ever finish: fourth place, six seconds off the podium. His previous best had been a couple of eighths. The 25-year-old Italian, contesting his second MotoGP season, has been coming on strong at recent races. He may have lost his Gresini ride to Marc Màrquez next year but results like this might yet get him a Honda ride for 2024.

The rest of the Mandalika story is about MotoGP’s walking wounded: Valentino Rossi’s Team Collarbone, Alex Rins, Alex Márquez and Bastianini.

Luca Marini, who broke his left collarbone in India last month scored his first-ever MotoGP pole on Saturday, took second in the sprint, chasing Martin hard, then got taken out by Binder on Sunday. The former Moto2 winner’s speed has been transformed following a set-up change made in the Misano tests to better suit his gangly frame.

Team-mate Marco Bezzecchi was the real hero of the weekend. He broke his right collarbone training at the VR46 ranch on Saturday. At Mandalika he refused to reveal what had happened, which only makes people think the worst…

He had the bone plated on Sunday, decided to miss the Indonesian round, then changed his mind on Wednesday, much to the dismay of his mother. It’s a long, long way to Lombok, so the shoulder swelled up on the multiple flights and he didn’t arrive until Friday morning, hours before first practice.

“The pain is there,” he said. “I expected a bit more but only because I said to myself, ‘I want to expect the worst’. Then at least if it’s better, it’s better.”

Incredibly, Bezzecchi was fast as ever from the get-go, crashed on the plated collarbone, was still as fast as ever and announced that he wanted to chase a sprint podium.

“If I go well, for sure champagne is a very good painkiller,” he laughed.

Like always, he made us laugh every time he opened his mouth.

“When I crashed I burned my arse to not hurt the collarbone.”

On Saturday he somehow did get that sprint podium. “The champagne was good but it was very hot.”

(Which answered a question I’ve always wanted to ask: do they put the podium champagne/prosecco on ice?). Obviously not. Philistines!

On Sunday Bezzecchi rode to fifth, just ahead of Binder (who had taken two long-lap penalties) and Jack Miller. Superhuman stuff.

An hour after the race he turned up for his media debrief and someone said he looked pretty fresh, all things considered.

“Yes,” he grinned. “I was drinking a beer!

“I’m not good through – a lot of pain, all around the shoulder, the neck, the muscles. Also the metal plates on my collarbone make a strange feeling.”

A special mention for Alex Rins, who gritted his teeth to take ninth, in his first race since he “exploded” his right leg during the Mugello sprint race. He can’t even put full load on the leg and still walks with a walking stick.

Alex Márquez travelled to Lombok hoping to race, after breaking several ribs in India, but pulled out after Friday. So MotoGP still hasn’t had a full grid this year.

Next it’s Phillip Island, where it’s forecast to be wet and 13 degrees on Sunday, just the 18 degrees cooler than Mandalika.