Bagnaia and Ducati Lenovo Team back to winning ways in Mandalika Sprint Race, while Bastianini is second at the line
• Five Ducati machines in the race top 5: Marc Márquez is third with the Desmosedici GP of Team Gresini Racing MotoGP, followed by Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Racing Team) and Franco Morbidelli (Pramac Racing Team)
The Ducati Lenovo Team has scored a sensational one-two finish in the sprint race for the Indonesian Grand Prix, which was contested today at the Mandalika Circuit. Francesco Bagnaia took the win, with Enea Bastianini second at the finish line and only a few milliseconds away from his teammate.
Bagnaia got off to an excellent start from fourth on the grid as he chose the outside line, entering turn one in second place. The reigning world champion took the lead at the end at the end of lap one as Jorge Martín crashed out of first place at turn 16. Pecco did a great job in managing the race without taking risks and well defended his lead from Bezzecchi and Márquez first, and then from a resurging Bastianini in the closing stages. Thanks to today’s success, Bagnaia narrowed the gap to the top of the standings down to 12 points.
Bastianini had a good start from fifth place but dropped one position following a small mistake at turn one. Courtesy of an excellent race pace, Enea was able to bridge the gap to the frontrunners in the second half of the encounter, and eventually overtook Marc Márquez during the penultimate lap. Despite the little time left, the Ducati rider #23 still tried to get back in contention for the win, as he crossed the finish line only 107 thousandths of a second shy of his teammate.
The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back in action tomorrow at 10:40 local time (GMT +8) for the warmup session, which will be followed by the 27-lap, Indonesian Grand Prix race, scheduled at 15:00.
Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1st
“I’m very happy with this win. It wasn’t an easy race, as the track temperature was the highest ever encountered so far at this track. This morning, we managed to make another step forward and in qualifying I understood how to be effective in the first two sectors. I still struggle at turns 15 and 16, but it’s a very tricky point where I almost tucked the front on a couple of occasions. This is why in the race I pushed as hard as I could in the first three sectors, as I knew I wasn’t the fastest rider in the last split. This is a strategy that could have worked only today, so we’ll keep working in the warmup in order to improve some more ahead of the race.”
Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 2nd
“It was a good sprint race; too bad for the start and especially for the mistake at turn one, which compromised a bit my chances of winning today. I had a good pace and I was very competitive under braking, and that allowed me to bridge the gap and to overtake a few riders. Tomorrow’s race will definitely be a tough one: Jorge crashed today, but he’ll be very competitive tomorrow. The fact that we’ll likely have to go for the medium rear tyre will mix things up a bit further.”
