NOW THAT’S what a champion’s ride looks like. For 12 laps of this chaotic contest, the plaudits were being readied for Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) for a fourth race weekend running. Bolstered by grabbing hold of the initiative of this title fight for the first time on Saturday, it appeared another Martin victory was a shoo-in from the moment of his epic five-in-one pass at the race’s first turn.
Yet come the end it was Francesco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati), not the diminutive Spaniard, who was back on top, thanks to a brilliant comeback from 13th on the grid. It was a performance which appeared in the realms of fantasy on Saturday, when he qualified 13th – comfortably his worst of the year – before he limped home to eighth in the Sprint.
“Pecco’s seeing how difficult it is to defend a championship,” Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) had said. All had looked lost.
Instead, it was Martin who cracked on Sunday, inexplicably crashing out of a comfortable 3sec lead. The Spaniard’s riding until then verged on the awe-inspiring. But he was one of many casualties of riding on the Mandalika Street Circuit’s dirty surface in track temperatures of 60°C on lap 13, when he
