MotoGP: Bezzecchi wins in Mandalika to keep title hopes alive, Martin back in Championship lead

Mandalika (Indonesia), Oct 11 (IANS) Marco Bezzecchi clinched a much-needed win at the Indonesian GP in Mandalika to keep his slim MotoGP title hopes alive as Jorge Martin took back the championship lead from Marc Marquez here on Sunday.

In an absorbing race at the Mandalika International Street Circuit, Aprilia secured a historic 1-2-3-4, with Raul Fernandez taking second place despite two broken fingers he sustained during the Saturday sprint ahead of Martin in third and Ai Ogura in fourth.

Seven-time champion Marquez finished sixth after dropping places in the latter half of the race as Martin took back the title lead.

Martin now has a two-point lead over Marquez, as he took another podium and 16 points from the Sunday race. The Ducati rider managed to take 10 points from the Grand Prix after he won the Saturday sprint and led the championship for the first time this year.

However, Martin now has 355 points, with Marquez on 353. Bezzecchi has come into the reckoning once again in the title battle, as he has 309 points, 44 adrift of the Ducati rider and 46 fewer than teammate Martin. This was Bezzecchi’s first race win since Mugello.

“Before this round I knew that maybe I had to risk a little bit more here, and yesterday of course didn’t pay off obviously with the race incident at the beginning, but fortunately today the race was good,” Bezzecchi said after the race.

“I’m still far, but anyway, my mentality is still the same. I mean, I will keep fighting, keep trying my best to achieve the best that I can till the end, so let’s continue like this,” he added.

Meanwhile, Fernandez opened up on his heroic effort despite battling broken fingers for a second-place finish in the race. “I don’t really know. This morning when I woke up, I felt super pain. I felt that I was not able to move the finger,” he said after the race.

“The problem with that is that the finger that I broke is the one that I am using on the brakes. The question for me was not if I was able to jump on the bike. The question was how I could brake the bike if I jump.

“I got on a very important podium because today was a very mental race for me. Thanks to my team that always believes in me, they try to support me, and they make all these stupid things that can give me the feeling to make everything for them,” Fernandez added.

–IANS

vm/bc