When a sixth position tastes like victory

Barcelona“Sometimes things happen just the opposite of how you had planned them”. That is how Marc Márquez summarized, with a mischievous smile, the chaotic Saturday at the Indonesian MotoGP Grand Prix. The rider from Cervera finished first in the sprint race, against all odds, overcoming a bumpy event and enjoying the luck of champions. Precisely, the luck that he lacked this Sunday, in which he could only manage sixth in the long race. A bad result, a priori, if it were not for the fact that he already saw it coming and, looking at the World Championship standings, the Catalan has minimized the damage in a weekend that did not invite optimism.

Sunday's long race was much more predictable than Saturday's sprint. The Aprilias, the bikes that adapt best to the Indonesian track, imposed themselves with great authority. This is demonstrated by the fact that they occupied the first four positions in the standings. The good news for Márquez is that Jorge Martín did not win, but rather finished third. In this way, the Madrid native was unable to add precious points to the World Championship standings, which he leads again but with only a two-point advantage. And the fact is that, with five Grands Prix left until the end of the championship, everyone is using the calculator.

Marc Márquez had already warned that he would have a hard time this weekend. On Saturday he smiled thanks to his rivals' mistakes. This Sunday, he had to settle for scraps. In any case, he had the luck of champions, because Jorge Martín, who got stuck at the start, had to work his way up to podium positions. Chastened by what had happened on Saturday, when he almost crashed, the man from Madrid preferred to be conservative and not take risks. As soon as he overtook a Márquez who was not at all comfortable, Martín accepted the third position.

The race was won by Bezzecchi, who returned to the top step of the podium after ten rounds, followed by Raúl Fernández and Jorge Martín. Fourth place went to Ai Ogura, thus completing the poker for the Aprilia team. Behind, Pedro Acosta's KTM and then, Marc Márquez's Ducati. In the World Championship, Martín is back as the leader with 355 points, two more than Márquez (353). Bezzecchi is third with 309. The next Grand Prix is in fifteen days in Australia.