New (slight) advantage for Jorge Martin. In the fierce duel between him and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) for the world title, the Spaniard won a new showdown by dominating qualifying for the Indonesian Grand Prix this Saturday. On the Mandalika circuit, crushed by heat, the Ducati-Pramac rider who improved the record of the Lombok circuit, will start on the front row in front of the Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati VR-46), who fell without seriousness and the another Spaniard Pedro Acosta (GasGas-Tech3). His main rival, Bagnaia, set the 4th time and will start from the 2nd row.
Overall, Martin (341 pts) is ahead of Bagnaia by only 24 points and the sprint on Saturday (3:00 p.m. local) then the Grand Prix on Sunday (3:00 p.m.) could result in a game of musical chairs between the two drivers. “I’m so happy. Today I felt good. Everything went perfectly, so it’s always nice“, reacted Martin.
Failed qualification for Marquez but successful for the Blues
Bastianini is further away, with 282 points, just one point ahead of Marquez. The six-time MotoGP world champion will only start in 12th position after crashing twice during qualifying.
The two Frenchmen, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Johann Zarco (Honda-LCR), made a nice group shot and will start in 6th and 7th position respectively. This is Quartararo’s best qualifying result since the French GP in May, where he started 8th. Zarco, for his part, achieved the performance of winning the first qualifying session on Saturday morning before setting the 7th time in Q2.
 on pole, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) 6th with Johan Zarco (LCR)){kind=link}