ALEX MARQUEZ TURNS A THIRD-ROW START INTO A STRONG INDONESIAN GP RESULT

Alex Marquez turned a difficult qualifying position into a valuable result at the Indonesian Grand Prix, finishing seventh after starting from the third row. The Gresini rider had arrived in Mandalika seeking a reset after a troubled Japanese weekend, where he crashed in both the sprint and the Grand Prix following a penalty for his collision with Pedro Acosta and Fabio Di Giannantonio in the sprint.

Unlike last year, Marquez struggled to find the pace for a front-row start. He made it through to Q2 but qualified eighth, unable to build the confidence needed for a faster lap. “Qualifying wasn’t exactly pretty — but at least there was no crash,” he said.

He finished fifth in Saturday’s sprint without gaining places through his own pace, benefiting instead from Aprilia’s problems and a long-lap penalty for Acosta. That result put three Ducatis in the top five.

Sunday’s 27-lap race demanded a similar focus on managing the bike and tyres. Marquez said he had expected a tough afternoon and that the team concentrated on making the medium tyre last without a major loss of grip. “For a long time it went well, but in the end it caught up with me,” he said, comparing the late-race drop-off to what he experienced at Silverstone. The strategy worked only partly, but he still crossed the line seventh, six seconds behind sprint winner Marc Marquez.

Di Giannantonio suffered more, and Alex passed his future team-mate before his own grip problems emerged late in the race. Seventh was a significant outcome for Marquez: it lifted him to eighth in the standings, with Pecco Bagnaia crashing out of the Grand Prix. Gresini team-mate Fermin Aldeguer, the previous year’s Mandalika winner, also fell and broke his right hand.