Grand Prix of Indonesia 2023

Vadims Mikeļevičs

Vadims Mikeļevičs

5

Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia brought a lot of interesting turnarounds for a championship game. It all began with the Saturday Q1 shocker. Upon his return from a broken collarbone, Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) sprinkled some magic on the Mandalika circuit as his 1:29.978 secured him a career-first pole position. Also it was a 7 different pole sitter for this season and it really got best MotoGP betting sites overheated because aside from that all eyes were on the reigning Champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) as the Championship leader prepared to scrap it out for a spot in Q2.

Fresh Saturday faces begin the show

After the rain-soaked Motul Grand Prix of Japan, the Indonesian round was typically hot, which became one of game-changing reasons for the lots of riders. 

Tissot Sprint Grid was shaped in a pretty interesting way because aside from the freshly new pole sitter Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team), first row was fully taken by Aprilia Racing duo Maverick Viñales and Aleix Espargaro.

While championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo) showed a huge performance decrease with his worst qualification so far and started the race in 13th place, his main rival Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) took advantage of the situation and started the race from a better 6th position.

From the beginning, Marini took on the leading role while the grid went through turn one before Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) snatched the lead at turn 2, which introduced some excitement to the live sports betting sites, as no one expected the freshly injured Italian to be in the leading group in this race. They both began to get some momentum and looked really dominant, with tensions rising behind their back. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Martin had moved ahead of Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) to sit in 3rd and 4th, with Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) in 5th. 

All eyes were on Martin, who was putting up a good fight with nine laps to go as he moved Marini to 2nd. A small mistake from the Italian was the deciding factor for his race, because at that point it was too much of a tall order to catch Martin who took victory by +1.131s with his title rival down in P8.

Bagnaia was fighting tooth and nail to bring home some points in eighth place, but in the end he lost his lead in the championship run. So before Sunday’s main race the best odds bookmakers were offering a huge variety of bets for both the Championship and current races.

Bagnaia's brilliant Sunday revenge

Bagnaia's brilliant Sunday revenge

By the beginning of the main race, it looked like we'd got a thoroughly dominant new championship leader and Bagnaia wouldn’t be able to defend his title, but the race brought a lot of new information to think about, with some of the fans heading straight for websites with MotoGP sports betting tips.

From the starting lights, it was the Ducati Lenovo man who did a quick work of the journey up into third, where he got stuck behind Viñales’s rear wheel while Martin became untouchable in his lead. That’s when the truly pivotal moment of the Grand Prix came. 

After achieving near perfection of late and taking that hard-fought lead on Saturday, the number 89 suddenly slid out at Turn 11, leaving an open goal for Bagnaia. All online sportsbooks went crazy after the reigning Champion didn’t miss the mark. He most definitely had to work hard for it, getting past Viñales late on before the Aprilia and Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™). 

So the race's final moments saw Bagnaia becoming the first rider to win from outside the top four rows in a dry race since Marco Melandri at the 2006 Turkish GP. The Italian saved his championship lead in the typical Italian style and crypto sportsbooks odds are going crazy right now since Bagnaia is back to the lead of the title fight with 18 points ahead of Martin. 

The next race will be held at Australian Phillip Island on 20-22 October, which always brings a lot of high-quality action.

2 ratings, average 5 out of 5

Review Author

Vadims Mikeļevičs

Vadims Mikeļevičs

Vadims Mikeļevičs is an e-sports and biathlon enthusiast with years of writing experience about games, sports, and bookmakers.

Reviewed By Editor in Chief

Eugene Ravdin

Eugene Ravdin

Hey! I've been working for the official UEFA website for 18 years as a translator, reporter, editor, and language version editor in chief.