MotoGP riders discuss dramatic Saturday at Mandalika | Qualifying

MotoGP 2022 – Round Two – Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia – Preview

After topping the timesheets on Friday at the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia, Fabio Quartararo kept it rolling in qualifying to underline the contrast between a difficult Qatar GP and a turnaround in Lombok.

Alongside it’s Jorge Martin and Pramac Racing teammate Johann Zarco in P2 and P3, the former taking his first front row that wasn’t a pole position, and elsewhere there was plenty of drama.

Eight-time World Champion Marc Marquez crashed twice in Q1 and thus didn’t make it into Q2, Repsol Honda’s Pol Espargaro was just behind his team-mate.

Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) likewise fared poorly, concluding with a crash and no place in Q2 for the 2020 Champion. While team-mate Alex Rins looked to suffer an engine fire in Saturday’s FP4 session. Suzuki have stated it was an oil line failure and the engine is still good. Rins managed to qualify eighth despite the fire in the Suzuki’s belly, and the fire was in his belly after getting whacked with a dose of Bali belly…

MotoGP Rider Quotes

Fabio Quartararo – P1

“Of course with the new asphalt and new tyres you don‘t know what to expect for qualifying, but I was feeling super great during the Mandalika test and also now. I‘m even more happy about my FP4 session when I did a lot of 1‘32s laps in a row. That, I think, was great and a good test to evaluate my physical condition. Doing 15-16 laps in a row is good. When I have tough moments, I want to turn things around. I think today and also yesterday we worked in a proper way. We took a risk by changing something on the bike that has been really paying off here, let‘s see if it will also work on the other tracks. I think that it’s really great that we were fighting for pole position and the front row, and that we achieved it. It‘s been a while since the 2021 Emilia Romagna GP that I felt this confident during qualifying, and it‘s great to have this feeling back. I will try to hone it until November.”

Jorge Martín – P2

“We are very happy, I knew I could do well and be fast. It’s a track I like a lot and together with the team we found the right combination. The feeling was already good yesterday and today it has improved. Tomorrow I have to start well and stay focused because it will be a long race.”

Johann Zarco – P3

“Very satisfied with the weekend so far, I am happy. The truth is that I feel very good with the bike and even if the weather conditions are very variable I feel good even in the wet. Hopefully we can have a good race tomorrow.”

Brad Binder – P4

“Today was a bit of a day tough for us all. The track conditions changed quite a lot from yesterday and the test. We had mixed conditions this morning but I wasn’t too stressed about it. In FP4 we went out to get a feel for what was going on. Overall, I’m feeling good for the race and confident. We need to be clever in warm-up an get everything ready. It’s going to be a good race. It’s very hot but I feel fast on the bike and I’m not pushing it too much. If we can make the tires last then we should be in decent shape.”

Enea Bastianini – P5

“We’re still not 100% ready and unfortunately this morning’s mixed conditions didn’t allow us to carry on with our work schedule as good as we’d liked. I chose not to take any unnecessary risk in FP3 and during FP4 I struggled in getting up to speed. The track improved little by little and I managed to set some good lap-times. In qualifying – if we take into account the two yellow flag situations – we cannot be but happy with fifth position. We’ll have to work hard during warm up, as we still need something extra to be really competitive.”

Francesco Bagnaia – P6

“As I have been forced to take part in Q1, I think sixth place in qualifying today is a good result. Unfortunately, in my last time attack attempt, I lost the rear for a moment at turn 11, so I couldn’t finish the lap properly. Anyway, I am happy; we did a great job, and I feel comfortable on the bike. It will be crucial now to analyse today’s data to understand which tyre to choose for tomorrow’s race. It will also be important to get a good start: today’s practice was positive, and tomorrow we’ll do another in the warm-up. But I am confident heading into tomorrow’s race”.

Miguel Oliveira – P7

“It was a good step getting into Q2 yesterday and then making a good lap. The third row is the limit for having a decent race tomorrow so we’ll hope for a solid start and to survive. My goal is to be consistent and finish the race. If we do this then I think we have a chance at a good result. I’m curious how the race will go because not many people have experience with long runs but we’ve worked well so far.”

Alex Rins – P8

“The qualifying day wasn’t easy. My physical condition has improved since yesterday, I have more strength and I feel better but my stomach isn’t very good today. Despite everything, we’re in eighth position, which isn’t too bad, but the tyre choice will be difficult tomorrow and this is a very hard track for overtaking. We lost time in FP4 today when I had a bike issue, which the team have already identified. It was a scary moment and I thought about the safety of everyone, and also my own safety, I took the bike to the side of the track and jumped off rapidly. In the end everything was fine and I’m very glad.”

Jack Miller – P9

“I was hoping to do better in qualifying, but today it seemed impossible to put a complete lap together: I went off on the green line in my first “time attack” and had to abort my second attempt because of the yellow flag. Also, with the second soft tyre, I found the flags again, and in the last attempt, I found another rider on my trajectory so I couldn’t finish the lap again. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow: now we have to focus on the tyre choice for the race. In general, we know we have the same pace as the front guys, so it will be important to get a good start to have a chance to be with them from the beginning”.

Aleix Espargaro – P10

“It’s a pity about that lap in qualifying. We could have gained a few positions on the starting grid. Unfortunately, I made a small mistake, but I am still satisfied. The feeling with the RS-GP is good. We’ve worked well on pace and, although it will be anything but an easy race, all the elements are there for us to do well.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio – P11

“I’m very happy: to get into Q2 in my second MotoGP race is a great result. We were all very happy within the pit-box and it was surely a good Saturday. I’m happy especially with the work done since Qatar. The front-end feeling has radically changed and I do notice it while on the track. I’m having fun, and results come when you’re having fun.”

Franco Morbidelli – P12
(Demoted to P15 for not following correct practice start procedure)

“It was not our day today. I made a mistake on a wet patch in the first time attack and then in the second time attack I took it too easy, and I couldn‘t improve my lap time. That‘s unfortunate. But we are confident because we have a good pace. This is true. We will try to refine some more things for tomorrow, and we‘ll try to make a good race. We start from far behind, we all know that it‘s going to be difficult, but we‘ll try anyway. We have a good speed, so who knows? About the penalty, it is right. It was my fault. I made a mistake and I‘m sorry. I won‘t do it again.”

Luca Marini – P13

“A busy day: we did a great job on the bike, especially in the FP4, to be able to do well tomorrow. The choice of the tire is still open, there are more options and this will be the key to managing the second half of the race in the best possible way. From my point of view it is a problem of temperature rather than of compound: the right side of the tire really hot. We will choose after the warm up, where we will work to make a final step on the electronics in terms of consumption. I am quite happy with the qualifying, a pity for the Q2, but I was losing a lot at turns 5 and 6 and I had to give up on my first attempt because at T2 I found several riders waiting on the line. On the second lap I tried to do my best, the feeling was good, but the tire performance in the T2 and T4 was no longer the same.”

Marco Bezzecchi – P14

“A really good day and an FP4 at the top. We made a nice step forward on the race pace and I’m satisfied. Too bad about the crash, I felt good, I was pushing hard, but maybe at that point I didn’t have the right confidence to go above the limit. I’m sorry, especially for the Team because they have done a lot in these days. Tomorrow morning we will make the most of the warm up and then a positive race.”

Marc Marquez – P15

“I am more or less OK after the two crashes today, when you are in Q1 you need to take risks and this is what can happen. I can’t be happy about today, all Honda riders are struggling. The only good thing was that we were starting 15th on the clean part of the track but now we will start on the dirty side after Morbidelli’s penalty. It is what it is, tomorrow we have to attack. Our reality is much better than what today showed, even with the different rear. The objective is to try to finish the race.”

Pol Espargaro – P16

“Today was a super tough day, I can’t say that I am anything but disappointed. The different rear tyre we have here is not working with our new bike and it’s causing us to struggle a lot and have more problems. We showed our potential here in the first test with the tyre we will use all year, you can see the impact it has because now other riders who struggled a lot during the test are flying. Tomorrow’s race will be about making it to the end, it’s all that we can do. We will be back stronger.”

Andrea Dovizioso – P17

“It was a better Qualifying than in Qatar. Overall, my feeling was better. I did an ok lap time, not a special one. But we were all very close, so it’s very difficult to get to Q2. It was important to have this Qualifying in the dry today in order to learn more in this condition. In general, my pace is closer than Qatar, we made some improvements. Starting in P17 it’s not easy to deliver a good race, but everybody will have to manage the rear tyre and the heat is high for everyone and when you are further behind, it’s even worse. But in the end, we did a small step in the right direction, so let’s see what we can do in the race and especially wait if it will be dry or wet.”

Joan Mir – P18

“It was a really hard day for us, we weren’t able to find good settings and I didn’t feel comfortable on the bike or with the new tyres. I was riding on the limit, having a lot of moments, and it wasn’t paying off in the times. This is not how I want to ride; we’re struggling at the moment, but we’ll continue to try everything to improve. We are very determined to fix the issues, so we’ll work tonight, and I have every confidence in my team because I know they’ll do everything they can to help me. We need to improve, because otherwise it will be very tough to get through tomorrow’s race.”

Álex Márquez – P19

“Second day here at Mandalika and I think we made a step forward compared to yesterday, we are a bit closer to our competitors, but we are still suffering a lot with front feeling, front turning, with grip, a little bit in every parameter really. It’s normal though because we didn’t know this bike, it’s completely new for us and we have lots to discover. I hope in the future in the other tracks we will have less problems, but this is how it is for now, we need to keep going, keep working and get all the information we can. Tomorrow is the race, today we had something more but I made some mistakes in the fast laps. Tomorrow we’ll try to make a fast start, to be competitive from the beginning and try to enjoy it as much as we can. We’ll also be ready if it rains as all conditions are possible here.”

Maverick Vinales – P20

“Our starting position does not fully reflect the work we’ve done this weekend. Let’s just say that our pace and the way we’re managing the tyres is better than our speed on the flying lap. But our focus is on working and trying new things. We’ll be doing that again tomorrow and if we don’t get the results we hoped for, we try again at the next race. I’ve already said that my championship will really start in Jerez. The RS-GP and I must become as one.”

Raul Fernandez – P21

“We were fast in Free Practice 3 this morning in difficult track conditions and this is very important for us. This afternoon in qualifying when we had to do a lap-time, we struggled somehow. We really need to focus and improve qualifying in order to get better positions on the grid. Tomorrow will be another day. We have a good race pace here, which makes me feel positive about race day.”

Remy Gardner – P22

“We had a tough qualifying session today. I managed to do a good lap time during the first run, but during the second run, everyone was waiting for each other in first gear, so I decided to take the lead of the group in order to try to do a good lap. I pushed a lot, improved my first sector but unfortunately I did not manage to produce a good enough lap-time overall. I think that we were all expecting a bit more, but we did not manage to get where we wanted. I have a good race pace here anyway as I did something close to a race simulation here back in February during the preseason, so I am looking forward to the race on Sunday.”

Darryn Binder – P23

“Today was quite good. I feel this morning it was interesting to ride on the wet tyres, even if the track was quite dry. At the end of the session to arrive with the slick in a little bit of mixed conditions was pretty cool. Qualifying was quite decent, I managed to improve my time quite a lot from yesterday and from the best I’ve done around here so far, so I’m really happy with that. I’m pretty close to the other guys. I feel I’m on a much better way than I was on Saturday in Qatar, so I’m only looking forward to tomorrow.” 

Takaaki Nakagami – P24

“Honestly this afternoon was tough for us, both FP4 and Q1. In FP4 we tried to keep the used tyre on to see tyre life for tomorrow’s race and we also tried the hard front which was the first time for us this weekend. I lost confidence after trying the hard front and so we went back, but the confidence was not the same as in FP2 and then there were yellow flags and some bad luck in qualifying, so I was really disappointed with our performance and it was not the result we wanted. For tomorrow’s race it will be difficult from the back of the grid, but I will try my best of course and 27 laps is very long for the tyre life. I’ll do my best and see what position we can get and keep pushing.”

MotoGP Combined Qualifying

Moto2

Inde GASGAS Aspar Team rider Jake Dixon achieved the first pole of his World Championship career at the Indonesian Grand Prix today.

Dixon was one-tenth faster than Augusto Fernández and Sam Lowes, who will join him tomorrow on the front row.

For the British rider, the Indonesian Grand Prix is ​​only the second with his new team, with which he has shown great adaptation from the beginning.

Jake Dixon – P1

“It feels so good! It feels so nice to pay the team with a pole position on the Kalex after a big move from last season, they deserve it as much as I do. It’s a team effort. We have been doing great. Finally, things are starting to pay off. I feel super good on the bike. Honestly, my crew is awesome, I love them so much. I just leave them to do their job; before I had to focus on being involved on the set-up of the bike. Now I just focus on myself. I can’t wait for tomorrow; I’m going to ride my race and I think it will be good.”

Moto2 Combined Qualifying

Moto3

Carlos Tatay (CFMoto Racing PrüstelGP) will start from his first World Championship pole position after beating rookie Diogo Moreira (MT Helmets – MSI) by 0.083s in Moto3 qualifying at the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia. Home hero and rookie Mario Aji (Honda Team Asia) claimed a sensational front row start for the first Indonesian GP in 25 years in third, and that after coming through Q1.

Joel Kelso was disappointed with his P22 result after a mistake yesterday in FP2 left them out of the automatic qualifiers through to Q1.

Moto3 Combined Qualifying

2022 MotoGP Round Two
Time Schedule (AEDT)

Sunday

2022 Provisional MotoGP Calendar

(*Subject to change*)