Historically, the Mandalika circuit in Indonesia has always reached some of the highest track temperatures, and this has proven to be true this year as well. Indeed, in qualifying and in almost all the sessions of the Grand Prix of Indonesia – which takes place on the island of Lombok – asphalt temperatures reached over 60 Celsius degrees, with peaks of 63°C.
Demanding conditions, not just for riders, but for tyres alike, which reach high internal temperatures and must offer a good level of grip to compensate for the chemical grip the asphalt loses due to the heat, making it more slippery. And Pirelli tyres passed the test with flying colours, by proving to be extremely fast, and allowing not only Aron Canet and Iván Ortolá (MT Helmets-MSI/KTM) to take pole and set new all-time lap records in Moto2™ and Moto3™ respectively, but also most of the riders to go under their previous records.
Record-breaking tyre performance in extremely high asphalt temperatures
“We are very satisfied with the behaviour of our tyres in Indonesia, especially given the very high track temperatures which, in qualifying and in the afternoon sessions, exceeded 60 Celsius degrees. On Friday morning’s free practice, the track was quite dirty, however the situation evolved for the better later on, and today it has improved even further. Friday afternoon, in P1, with the asphalt reaching 63°C, riders of both classes dropped below their respective all-time lap records, and then improved them considerably today, first in P2 this morning and then in qualifying, with new all-time lap records faster than the previous ones by almost 8 tenths in Moto2™ and even by a second and a half in Moto3™. We are not talking about slightly retouched records, but rather vastly improved ones, and, most importantly, this improvement was recorded globally, if we consider that there were 13 Moto2™ riders and 20 Moto3™ riders in qualifying who fell below the previous track record. Beyond pure performance on the flying lap, in practice sessions we saw several long runs and some riders did simulations on the race distance with very positive results: the tyres are consistent and have very good levels of wear. For us, Mandalika confirms itself as an average circuit in terms of tyre stress. For tomorrow’s races: in Moto2™ we expect almost all the riders to use the soft compounds on both axles; in Moto3™ the medium SC2 rear should be favoured, as it is more stable than the soft. While for the front, as it often happens, we will have some riders on soft SC1 and others on medium SC2, based on their personal preferences and the setups carried out over these two days”.
Moto2™
· Aron Canet (Fantic Racing/Kalex) was unquestionably the star of the day. After being the fastest rider in the practice sessions, he also took pole with a time of 1’33.434 using soft compounds for both axles, and then SC0 rear and SC1 front.
· Although the time obtained on pole is almost half a second faster than the track record he set in 2023, Canet set a new all-time lap record in P2 with a time of 1’33.077, improving by almost 8 tenths compared to last year.
· In qualifying, 13 riders lapped under the previous track record.
· Qualifying took place with track temperatures of 62 Celsius degrees and air temperatures of 29°C, while P2 was the coolest session with the asphalt reaching 43°C.
Moto3™
· Iván Ortolá (MT Helmets-MSI/KTM) took pole position in 1’37.332 on his sixth lap, a time that allowed him to set the new all-time lap record, with an improvement of almost 1.5 seconds on the previous record set by Jaume Masia last year. In total, 20 riders lapped under the old track record in qualifying.
· To get pole, the Spanish rider used soft SC1 rear and medium SC2 front compound tyres. Same choice also for second-placed Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP/Husqvarna), while third-placed Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia/Honda) opted for softer solutions on both axles.
· In the practice sessions, the fastest rider was Luca Lunetta (SIC58 Squadra Corse/Honda), who in Saturday morning’s P2 lapped in 1’37.384, almost 1.4 seconds faster than the previous lap record of the track.
· So far, Friday afternoon’s P1 was the session with the highest temperatures, with 30 Celsius degrees in the air and 63°C on the asphalt, while the least hot was P2 on Saturday morning, with similar air temperatures but only 40°C on the asphalt. Temperatures during qualifying were similar to P1’s. |
