Overview
- Raul Fernandez converted Friday practice form into his maiden MotoGP pole at Mandalika, with Marco Bezzecchi second and Fabio Di Giannantonio third while Marc Marquez qualified fourth and championship leader Jorge Martin fifth.
- Aprilia set the pace across practice and qualifying, with Bezzecchi topping final practice and multiple Aprilia-powered bikes occupying the top timesheets, showing the RS-GP suits the circuit’s high-speed flow.
- Qualifying and final practice were disrupted by numerous crashes: Q1 saw several riders fall and Fermin Aldeguer crash in Q2, Toprak Razgatlioglu dislocated then popped back in his right shoulder in FP2 and still made the grid, and Ai Ogura fractured a finger in FP1 yet progressed to seventh on the grid.
- Marc Marquez used a tactical follow of Jorge Martin on the final Q2 run to secure fourth on the grid, a manoeuvre that directly affected Martin’s approach and matters because Martin leads Marquez by just two points.
- The Sprint this afternoon and Sunday’s Grand Prix will test whether Aprilia’s single-lap edge holds over race distance and the result could change the tight title battle at a venue where grid position and race incidents have had outsized effects in the past.