On a weekend overshadowed by his brother Marc’s crash with Marco Bezzecchi, Alex Marquez extended his MotoGP points cushion over Francesco Bagnaia to 88 in the race for a historic Marquez one-two in the world championship.
The Gresini rider admitted he thought his Indonesian Grand Prix was over before it had even begun, after failing to engage his front holeshot device.
“I started the race in a really bad way. I didn’t engage the front device, so I said ‘bye-bye’ to the race,” Marquez said.
Despite the shaky start and slipping to eighth, Marquez steadily worked his way forward. He overtook Fabio Quartararo, Luca Marini, Raul Fernandez, Pedro Acosta, and Alex Rins to climb into second place behind runaway leader Fermin Aldeguer.
Acosta struck back in the closing stages, leaving Marquez to settle for third place.
“In the last two laps, Pedro was faster than me. I said a podium is okay after all the problems we had this weekend. On paper, Mandalika was one of my weakest tracks, so we saved it in a really good way,” he reflected.
With Bagnaia failing to score in Mandalika, Marquez can now afford to lose an average of 21 points per round in the final four races and still secure the runner-up spot in the championship.
“We took many important points for our second in the championship. Now we need to look forward to Australia,” Marquez added.
The Australian MotoGP will run from October 17–19.
