Jorge Martín Wins Indonesia GP

This season of 20 GPs has five left to run: four in the East, then the Valencia finale. Until the result at Indonesia, there were four credible contenders: the leader Jorge Martín (Pramac Ducati), his close challenger Francesco Bagnaia (factory Ducati), and two possibles in Marc Márquez (who is miraculous on tricky surfaces on his on a year-old Gresini Ducati but often at some disadvantage to the above pair when grip is fair to good), and Enea Bastianini (lately emerged from slow Fridays and Saturdays to unleash sometimes unmatched lap times late in GPs on the factory Ducati).

Then came change. Márquez went out on lap 12 with an engine fire, and Bastianini—second in the Saturday sprint—lost the front on lap 21 during his signature late-race charge.

At the finish it was Martín first by 1.4 seconds over straight-talking first-year-man Pedro Acosta on GasGas/KTM, then Bagnaia at 5.6 seconds. That leaves us with these altered championship standings:

Martín is very fast yet crashes out of the lead too often (as he did in this weekend’s sprint). This makes us think of those who ride without a margin—a reserve that gives them the ability to go fast without having to push until all is lost. Here, Bagnaia talks a good game, often recounting after a race that he’s cautioned himself, looked for a way to lead without deep risk. Yet this season he’s also suffered too many DNFs. The strain of this close championship tempts both men to hold nothing back.

Both men have the speed to be champion. Which one has the discipline?

Jorge Lorenzo, dean of all corner-speed riders, once told of realizing he could (and must!) keep a margin. Not the “all risks, all the time” attitude so much a part of the old 125cc class, whose mad Brownian motion Lorenzo joined at the age of 15.

There is also the danger in ignoring the score and letting the music flow; in that dreamy state, no one is in charge. Classic motor racing journalist Denis Jenkinson described racing drivers of great talent, vulnerable in this way, letting compelling grace take over to go faster and faster until a crash. Judgment is essential—to step back from unrealizable temptation and harvest 20 championship points instead of gravel.

Martín achieved the ideal by leading every lap, with the advantage of clear air ahead. Bagnaia suffered another lurch-and-spin start as his Ducati’s clutch system failed to work properly. Starting fourth he fell back to sixth and remained there for 20 laps.

“…I was a bit too careful in the first lap and lost positions there.

“…when I was behind the group I was struggling with the front tire…it was almost impossible to overtake Bezzecchi…but once I overtook him (for third place on lap 22 of 27) it was much easier.

“Finishing third was OK, we gained three points in the championship.”

Martín said he was mindful of his crashes here in the previous two years. “…after 13 laps I had some ghosts on my mind, then corner 11 and every lap on corner 16 I was trying to be careful, we had lots of wind there from the side.

“Acosta was incredible.

“I tried to be calm and be my best person, even if the rider behind is [within] one-eighth, one-tenth, the important thing to do is the same thing. I didn’t try and change, or push more or less. I was at my maximum.”

Acosta, after some laps at roughly 1.25 seconds back, did push, reducing Martín’s lead to six-tenths of a second on laps 12 and 17.

Acosta: “Did I think I could win? Absolutely! I tried to go and catch Martín, but there came a time between laps 16 and 17 when he started to pull away again and I said to myself that maybe a second place was better today than another crash.”

Mr. Adversity, Marc Márquez, was third in the Saturday sprint behind Bagnaia and Bastianini after starting 12th (two crashes in Q2). At the end of lap 1 of the grand prix he was seventh.

“We were fighting in the first part of the race and in battle you lose time. But I had the pace to stay [with] Pecco, and I knew my goal was a position between third and fifth, and I had everything under control by staying behind him.”

Then his engine caught fire.

After the race, the tire pressure police charged Acosta with an offense, threatening a 15-second penalty. After a tense time, they determined that air had been lost via the wheel itself. I imagine officials, trotting into the tech office carrying a grimy galvanized tire shop test tub sloshing with water. No one giggles as a grand fromage partially immerses Acosta’s front wheel and slowly rotates it. There! A tiny stream of bubbles! Acosta is acquitted and his second place stands!

This is a time of intense competition among strong talents on factory racebikes. It lacks only the luster of history that enshrines such battles as those of 1967, between Giacomo Agostini on MV and Mike Hailwood on Honda, but you can be sure those men felt what Martín and Bagnaia are feeling now.

Hailwood’s manager of many years, Ted Macauley, described Hailwood in his hotel room in the last half-hour before a TT start. His leathers and other race gear were laid out on the bed, a radio offered feeble distraction, and the man paced up and down, his nails bitten short. At the last possible moment he would dress and walk to the start. Time to become his other self.

More action to come. The Japanese GP is next weekend.