Brief wrap after opening day of MotoGP at Mandalika

2024 MotoGP World Championship
Round 15 – Mandalika – Friday
Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia

It wasn’t until there were less than 15-minutes remaining in the Friday afternoon session that the soft rubber was getting slotted in and the times started dropping.

Jorge Martin setting the initial target, a 1m30.317 with 13 minutes to go. The Spaniard then immediately bested that by more than half-a-second, a 1m29.670 for a new fastest ever motorcycle lap of Mandalika by more than three-tenths.

Pedro Acosta was the next man in the 29s, shortly followed by Enea Bastianini, who pushed the young GASGAS rider back to third with ten-minutes left in the session. The Beast’s following lap promoted him into P1, besting Martin by four-hundredths of a second to lower the lap record once again.

With five-minutes remaining in the session, Pecco Bagnaia was just outside the top ten. Bastianini was on top ahead of Martin, Acosta, Di Giannantonio, Vinales and Marc Marquez.

Alex Marquez was hot on the heels of Bagnaia in a quest to move up the order, but he went down at turn 16 while trying to match the pace of the defending champ.

Pecco Bagnaia then did what he needed to when it mattered, a 1m29.712 promoting him up to third. Not for long though, as seconds later Morbidelli pushed Bagnaia back to fourth.

As the clock hit zero a number of riders were on their fastest laps.

Bastianini was under his previous best and on the way to lowering the lap record yet again before being help up by Fabio Di Giannantonio.  Seconds later Di Giannantonio fell while trying to improve from ninth.

Pecco Bagnaia ran out of fuel after his practice start and got a tow back to the pits from Marc Marquez.

Enea Bastianini finishing Friday on top and not only that, the Italian put in a swag of 1m29s and looked to have more speed up his sleeve…

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Jorge Martin only just behind, but not as consistently quick as Bastianini.  Franco Morbidelli right there too and Bagnaia also within a tenth of Bastianini.  A GP24 1-2-3-4.

Marco Bezzecchi finished day one fifth while Fabio Quartararo was sixth ahead of Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta.,

Fabio Di Giannantonio ninth and Maverick Vinales rounded out the top ten ahead of top Honda Johann Zarco.

Miguel Oliveira fractured his right wrist in the morning session and took no part this afternoon.

Conditions for Practice were dry with an ambient temperature nudging 30-degrees and a track temperature of 57-degrees. Humidity was 76 per cent. Salty…

MotoGP Practice Times

MotoGP Championship Standings

Moto2

Ai Ogura pipped Aron Canet for the fastest time on Friday at Mandalika.

A great first day for Aussie rookie Senna Agius with the seventh fastest time.

Moto2 Practice One Times

Moto2 Championship Standings

Moto3

Collin Veijer finished Friday on top in Moto3 ahead of Fernandez and Almansa.

Joel Kelso was 12th while countryman Jacob Roulstone was just inside the top 20.

Jacob Roulstone – P19

“Not too bad of a first day here in Indonesia. I struggled a bit to find the lines and learn the track in the first exit this morning. We got the laps in to try understanding everything. In the afternoon, I tried a long run with used soft tyres, but I did not have much confidence with that. I changed mid-session and I feel like we were better. My main struggle was the corner entries today, and you need to have the confidence for these, which I did not quite have overall today, so it is a point that we will need to improve on for tomorrow.”

Moto3 Practice One Times

Moto3 Championship Standings