MotoGP riders reflect on mad Mandalika | Jack Miller extended cut

MotoGP 2023

Round 15 – Indonesian Grand Prix

MotoGP Riders Reflect

Francesco Bagnaia – P1

“Incredible! I’m very happy, this win was so important. I was struggling at the weekend, my team again have done such an incredible job, I was trying to adapt, and they gave to me the maximum. This morning in the warm-up I was very happy with what they did, and, in the race, we won again… finally, because it was a long time without a win after the crash in Barcelona. I’m very proud of my team and my crew. I was controlling because I could see that Martin was pushing hard, but I said to myself to wait and see because it was a very long race. I was taking care about the tyres then when I saw the laps to go, I just tried to push again to put me in the front. Winning here and today and starting from P13 is very good. Now I’m ready to fight all the way to the end like always.”

Maverick Vinales – P2

“We must be happy, we made a really good comeback after the past two races. All weekend I felt fantastic with the bike, there is a few things to improve to get closer to the Ducati guys, I see again they have a little more grip at the end. Overall though, the bike is on a really good level and we got a lot of good information.”

Fabio Quartararo – P3

“I‘m super happy! The key point of my race was the warm-up lap, where I really tried to make the rear spin a lot. I knew it was a positive race. I showed my speed. But when you’re fighting for podium positions you always want more. Every time it‘s possible to get a podium, it‘s great to do it! We have to keep going. We were riding on the limit, and it was really nice to finish within 0.5s from first.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio – P4

“An incredible weekend. It was great because we were always fast and we did a crazy race. The start went worse than expected and lost several positions. I knew I had a good pace and a great feeling with the bike so I only thought about riding at my best, with such a long race ahead of me. I stayed focused and I was extremely quick, I was able to overtake so many that I eventually found myself in fourth place without knowing. It was a constant evolution all weekend: the work done by the team has been incredible and I would like to highlight especially the one done by my crew chief and my telemetry guy, but also everyone in the garage, because the bike was perfect.”

Marco Bezzecchi – P5

“I’m very happy with the weekend, I wasn’t expecting it: yesterday the podium and today the P5. My shoulder hurts, so do my muscles and especially my neck, but I gave it all. Every lap, I saw the guys from my Team on the wall cheering me on, before the start I asked for all their positive energy and they were fantastic. Now we have to stay calm, make the most of these days between here and Australia to work with our physiotherapist. Today the podium wasn’t far, but this placement is still amazing. Overtaking Brad (Binder) on the last lap really gave me such a pleasure. I was very conservative at the beginning, perhaps too conservative, and I had a couple of contacts into the group. Then in the final I wasn’t always able to be consistent, I did a very fast lap, then maybe two slower ones to catch a breath. The Phillip Island track is much less physical, there are no challenging braking sections, the point where I suffer the most, and I will certainly be able to manage the weekend better.”

Brad Binder – P6

“I don’t really know where to start. I was a bit unsure of which tyre to choose and, in the end, the medium rear was the right one, so thanks to the team for helping with that. The first laps were quite OK. I just wanted to build-up confidence in the tire and I had a little shake in Turn 8 and when I went for the brakes in 9 the lever came right back to my fingers so I didn’t have much pressure. I wanted to move out so I didn’t hit the guys and the only place was the inside. So, I’m very sorry to the whole Mooney VR46 team and of course Luca [Marini]. After that I just tried to push and gain as much as I could but hit Miguel [Oliveira] into Turn 2: 100% my fault. So, more apologies to him and his team. Two Long Laps and I deserved them both. Considering everything we were lucky to finish 6th and to reach the flag. Phillip Island is my favourite track in the calendar, we just need to protect the tyre there. I’ve had good feeling in the past so I hope it will be a positive weekend.”

Jack Miller – P7

“Seventh – look, I’m happy enough with that, and in general with our performance all weekend here in Indonesia. It was a tricky weekend here with the heat and how one- line this track is, but all weekend we were able to show some decent speed, so happy with the outcome. It’s nice to have two decent weekends in a row as well, both with Japan and here. I had strong pace at the end too which is always a positive in these hot conditions. Not too far off the leaders, but we’ve got a little bit of work to do, definitely.

“It was really slippery in the beginning and I had a little mistake, went in a little deep at Turn 10 on lap two and lost a few positions, but came back on and set to work. I got past (Honda’s) Marc (Marquez) and finally got through on (Aprilia’s) Miguel (Oliveria), and set my sights on (Yamaha’s) Fabio (Quartararo) and felt really good for eight laps in a row, I really had some decent pace. But the soft front tyre started to have some moments, all on one lap on the left-hand side, and I was little bit taken aback and didn’t really understand what I needed to do.

“The grip wasn’t terrible, but it was the way I was riding, trying to let (the bike) roll … I couldn’t do that anymore and had to keep some load on the front. Once (KTM teammate) Brad (Binder) came past I found my bearings again and saw what he was doing – he had a different front tyre to me but I felt he was braking quite late, so I was able to rebound and find a little bit of speed towards the end there. I was able to keep (Ducati’s) Enea (Bastianini) at bay, it took everything I had those last three laps to keep him behind me, but nonetheless it was a solid race.

“The Sprint on Saturday went alright too, all things considered. I lit it up a bit at the start – I had a great jump but in the second part of the start I started to spin and had to slip the clutch to avoid the rear tyre lighting up. It was super hard to pass though, it’s very one-line here because the track doesn’t get used much. Once we get a dry line through the corners and it grips up, she’s pretty treacherous off-line and there’s probably only one place to make a pass, at Turn 10, unless the guy in front of you makes a mistake. It’s super-easy to lose the front of the bike here, it’s even slippery on-line, let alone off of it.

“The only bad part of Saturday was crashing in the pit lane … probably one of the dumber things I’ve done, I reckon. I was cruising along, had my hand on the tank, pressed the pit lane speed limiter for 70km/h and grabbed the brakes, and I guess the brakes were cold because I’d been off-line all lap on the in-lap. I didn’t have my hands on the handlebars at the time so whack, down I went on my face in front of everyone. I was all good though, it was only the old ego that was a bit bruised …

“The massive topic before we got on track here was of course Marc (Marquez) and him walking away from Honda. We all got asked about it, no surprise there. Look, it’s a big move for him, and I really hope he can succeed, I’m sure it wasn’t a decision he took lightly. More power to him, I wish him all the best. It’s always sad when you see these riders when it’s like (Valentino) Rossi and Yamaha, (Jorge) Lorenzo and Yamaha, Dani (Pedrosa) and Honda and now Marc leaving Honda … it’s always sad when you see the power couples break up, but it’ll be exciting to see what he can do in the future. He’s walking away from a decent pay packet to get results, which is something I can definitely respect.

“It’s time to head home now – everyone can visit me for a change – and I’m really looking forward to heading to Phillip Island on this bike. We’ve made some big steps forward with the new chassis and so on and with set-up in general, and the way we come into the weekends, so I reckon the KTM can work really, really well around the Island. The bike is nice and agile at high speed which you need there, and there’s always some decent grip there as well. Fingers crossed we can put on a good show for the home fans, I know I’ll feel that extra support so we’ll see you there!”

Enea Bastianini – P8

“It wasn’t exactly a very lucky race for me because at the start in turn 11 after a contact with Marc I had to go wide and slipped down to last place. I also had to do the long lap penalty and it was so difficult for me to recover positions. But after that I did a good pace and set the fastest lap of the race, so I can say that I am very happy with the feeling on the bike and the work done but not with the result. Now we have the right feeling again; also, in Barcelona we made a good step and for the race I was ready to push, but here we have confirmed this. I was fast all the weekend, today I was faster in the race, and I think that now we have a good pace to go well in the next races.”

Alex Rins – P9

“The 27 laps have been tough as around 10 laps to the end, I started to feel a lot of pain and had to keep focused to do the best job possible. It feels good to be back on the points after more than 100 days without racing, and I’d like to thank the team. They deserve this result, and as always, they’ve done an incredible job”.

Takaaki Nakagami – P11

“It’s been a tough race, and one of the most demanding things was to control the tyre consumption cleverly. The conditions were quite extreme, but I’m happy because we’ve added some points again, which is positive; now we’ll try to improve in Australia to fight for the Top 10”.

Miguel Oliveira – P12

“This week has been difficult. For sure some of the settings we have done on the bike helped us to understand the feeling that I need to ride better, but we discovered it a little too late after the Qualifying, but there were still some positives since I managed to get into Q2. The race pace yesterday was not too bad with the soft rear. We’ve been using the soft tyre the whole weekend and we didn’t feel that the medium could have given us more than the soft, but the race conditions were different and we had to discover by ourselves early in the race that the soft tyre was the wrong choice. I also had a little touch with Brad (Binder) which didn’t help as well. For sure I lost a lot of places from that incident, but I don’t think that was the main reason for the result today. I hope to learn from this weekend, take some positives and go to Phillip Island.”

Raul Fernandez – P13

“We made a bad decision on the tyre today. It is something that I don’t understand, yesterday I did 13 laps in the Sprint race, I didn’t have any problems with the tyre, so my choice for today was to use the same tyre as yesterday. But from lap 10 or 11, I already had a big problem on the left side, I couldn’t ride the bike and I was sliding all the time so I couldn’t go fast. I will take the responsibility for today, the team wanted to try it in the Warm Up this morning but I said no because I wanted to keep it since it worked well yesterday. At the beginning of the race, I was there in the group and saw Fabio (Quartararo) there with some other riders in the middle, and lap by lap I was catching up to them. We were in a good place, the pace was good, I saved the tyre but then a moment later the tyre was gone. I take this as experience, but at the moment it’s difficult. We came from good results but it was a hard weekend here. Now, we will go to Australia, I think the Aprilia does well there. It will be interesting to go there and have a good feeling again on the bike.”

Franco Morbidelli – P14

“After a good start, I had an electronics issue and had to pull back, stop at the pit box, and rejoin the race. I rode 23 laps alone, and I was happy to see the speed I had. It was good for me and the team to finish the race anyway. We will try to bring this speed on Phillip Island Friday, and then we‘ll see what happens.”

Jorge Martin – DNF

“Was a great race, until that point.. I was a bit wide at turn ten, then I thought maybe pick up some dirt, and I was right, the next corner I crashed. It was the only mistake I did, was committed, trying to be focussed. I am happy that I am the fastest, today nobody was even close to my pace so I am happy to have the speed and demonstrate that at Phillip Island. We still have ten races to go, a long way to go.”

Augusto Fernandez – DNF

“A tough race and a hard weekend. I made a mistake into Turn 10 and lost time early on but then I was back up to my pace and feeling OK. I was running well until the crash, when I lost the front. A shame because the top ten was possible. The speed was there so I cannot wait to start again in Australia.”

Pol Espargaro – DNF

“Obviously I’m not happy after crashing so early in the race but we have to look to the positives. I was struggling this weekend so we changed the bike a lot this morning and it was much better for me. I recovered a lot of positions at the start and I think I was P7 or P6 before the crash. It’s a pity but also a learning process for the next races and getting some good feedback. This is always important.”

Luca Marini – DNF

“I’m very sorry for the crash, very similar to the one in Le Mans. I have the same pain in my thumb, I couldn’t do anything to avoid the contact, I just felt a big blow from behind. In any case the collarbone is safe and this must also be considered. Brad (Binder) came to my office, we talked, he explained to me what happened on his bike. At this point, I would say that what leaves the most bitter taste in my mouth is the start. I lost a lot and, when Jorge overtook me, I found myself not in the best position and had to close the throttle. I lost positions, but I knew I was fast. Overall a good weekend, let’s see what my physical condition will be at Phillip Island, a track that I love.”

Marc Marquez – DNF

“The weekend started in a good way but then day by day, it became more complicated. Today in the race I kept calm, I was losing a little bit of ground, but I was not panicking. The aim was to finish the race and I was riding with this in mind. Unfortunately, at one point in Turn 13 I lost the front and I couldn’t save it. A tricky crash to understand but we start thinking about Australia.

Joan Mir – DNF

“Look, I crashed so obviously the result is a disaster, but I could see some potential today. I made a good start but I got caught up with Morbidelli a bit. Then I was recovering and I had a good pace in the 1’31s, catching the group with Miller and these guys. The only guy doing better times in front was Martin so we really have to focus on this – it’s a positive point. I am happy for this, but obviously not happy to fall. Now we get to go straight to Phillip Island, a track I really like so hopefully we can have some more pace there and keep improving.”

Johann Zarco – DNF

“My bike lowering system got stuck at the bottom, I felt it at the third turn, I thought I hadn’t deactivated it. I’m waiting for turn 10 to do it, to be sure sure but when I come out of the bend I’m still in the low position. The small control seems to work well but the system, mechanically, remained stuck at the bottom. From there it is impossible to drive at the right speed , I tried to take the measurement, to see if I could ride, if it wasn’t dangerous, if I wasn’t going to have another mechanical problem or fall at high speed, then I saw that it was “rideable”.

“I told myself that the race was lost but that I could at least finish it because the conditions were very complicated: there were a lot of falls. I was riding calmly and curiously I even had interesting sensations keeping the bike very low like that. Well it doesn’t allow you to ride very fast but with a few 32.7 or 32.8 it showed that we could do something. At that moment Morbidelli started to have difficulties, he was behind, he passed me again and I saw that he made several mistakes. So I started to challenge him but I immediately fell, it’s a real shame. I would have liked to finish the race to take the small point.

“It’s a series of little things since Japan: I fall in a streak of water, there’s a red flag, I bring the bike back but they don’t even count my 10 points. I wasn’t at ease this weekend, I started to have sprint speed yesterday and this morning, I told myself that I was going to gradually improve, I had set Pecco as a goal, it seemed a good objective and ultimately no, unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. In short, I’m disappointed.

“It’s good to continue directly with Australia, it’s going to be complicated because it’s going to be very cold but that said last year the speed was good there. It’s a circuit that everyone loves and I’m going to try to get there as best as possible because there’s no shortage of desire. I hope things go well with a great success at the end.”

Team Managers

Luigi Dall’Igna – Ducati Corse General Manager

“I’d say that Pecco really reacted like a champion today, it wasn’t easy after yesterday’s defeat. He did a splendid and intelligent race, it’s difficult to say anything more than that. The rear tyre certainly made an important difference, and from the point of view of the overall setup of the electronics and the setup of the bike we made some other evolutions, but he certainly truly did a masterpiece of a race. Let’s say that the last few races will be a bit of a fratricidal war for us, but it will certainly be nice to see these guys fight until the end.”

Massimo Meregalli – Monster Yamaha Team Director

“It was a difficult Race to predict. The new Michelin medium rear tyre was still largely unknown to us, and the same goes for the new track surface; but our strategy worked out well for Fabio. His good qualifying helped him, of course, but he also did a superb job. He kept his concentration and also his vigour, and it was great to see him fight at the front again, which is where we belong. This is a physically demanding track, with little time to recover and catch your breath, and it was very hot today, and the race was long – but it turns out it wasn‘t long enough. Just a few more laps could have done the trick. But, anyway, we are very pleased with today‘s result. Third place is a nice boost, as the team and Yamaha are working very hard behind the scenes. Franky was unlucky at the start of the race. His bike had an electronics issue, so he had to go back into the pits. By the time he headed back out, he was too far behind to do any more battling, which was a shame because his lap times were really good. But the data will still be valuable and every championship point counts.”

Pablo Nieto – VR46 Team Manager

“A week full of mixed emotions: on Sunday morning the almost certainty of having to miss the GP, at least with Marco, then the hope of a faster recovery and yesterday Luca’s beautiful pole position with the double podium in the Sprint. I’m really happy even if there’s a bit of a bitter taste left in my mouth for the accident involving Luca today. It wouldn’t have been an easy race, also considering the long lap, but he could have fought to show his potential, he worked perfectly. What about Marco, what he did is incredible, I’m speechless. The Team didn’t lose concentration, he finds something extra today to resist to the pain. We are going to Phillip Island still recovering, but with a great desire to do well with both our riders, who have proven to be among the strongest ever this weekend.”

Francesco Guidotti – Red Bull KTM Team Manager

“An intense race. For Jack it was solid. He recovered ground to the leaders then kept the position. He suffered a bit with the front tire with ten laps to go but kept steady and finished with some points. It was difficult and the tire choice was not clear but he made the right decision for himself. Brad finished 6th with two long laps! A very fast race for him. It was some shaking at Turn 8 which meant he was missing some braking potential into Turn 9 and hit Luca Marini; we apologise for that but it was something out of our control. Strange contact also the second time. We showed our potential again but we could not catch what we could and what we deserved.”

Razlan Razali – CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Principal

“The Indonesian Grand Prix was a difficult one, even from Friday, we did not have the rhythm. Both riders didn’t really feel comfortable with the bike and that shows in the Qualifying. Although Miguel was in Q2, but we couldn’t capitalize on a better grid position. The Sprint race was also difficult with the soft tyres, and unfortunately the decision to go with soft tyres in the race today was a mistake. As you can see, a lot of the other riders that used the soft tyres had their times dropped or they even crashed. But we were extremely lucky to get some points. This is something that we have to accept and learn. Now, we head to Melbourne next week and let’s see what happens there.”

Wilco Zeelenberg – CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Manager

“We have completed Round 15 for the season and it has been a difficult weekend for us. We were not able to find the right spot with the bike and it was a bit weird, because we were actually very happy with everything in the last three rounds but here, we struggled to do so. Things were looking better in the Sprint race yesterday and we were trying to make another step forward today. Unfortunately, this morning we received some wrong information from our tyres and we chose the soft rear which clearly was the wrong call. Lesson learnt, we still had some points since others made bigger mistakes. So, let’s head to Australia and try to do a better job there.”

Nicolas Goyon – GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 Team Manager

“Augusto had a difficult tyre choice for the race and finally he made a good decision and made a decent pace after his small mistake. We expected him to reach the top ten and the crash was a big shame. We also had some hopes for Pol after the changes the team made to the bike. He had a good start and was confident but was caught out with the front end. Not the end to the weekend we wanted but we’ll look forward to different conditions in Australia.”

Piero Taramasso – Michelin

“This year, the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia was quite a challenge for the tyres! With track temperatures above 60°C and the demands of the asphalt, the Mandalika track pushed the tyres to their limits, particularly the Soft specifications, which were used successfully by the riders on Saturday. Despite being well outside their optimum operating window, the Soft MICHELIN Power Slicks impressed with their consistency and their resistance to the phenomenon called ‘blistering’ which normally occurs in the event of very high temperatures. Even though our range demonstrated great versatility, on Sunday we recommended riders to use the Medium rear option, to avoid gambling on the initial extra grip provided by the Soft tyres. The majority of riders followed our advice, and the race was very competitive, as seen in the great battle during the final laps between three motorcycles from different brands, Ducati, Aprilia and Yamaha, which made up the podium. Finally, I would like to congratulate Pecco Bagnaia for his great victory, the 500th for Michelin in the FIM world championship, as well as Ducati who wins the title of 2023 Manufacturers’ World Champion.”

MotoGP Race Results

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2023 MotoGP Calendar