Jorge Martin put on an overtaking masterclass in the Indonesian Grand Prix sprint race to snatch away the MotoGP points lead from Francesco Bagnaia, who finished eighth.
Martin managed to make up a position off the start due to a slow starting Aleix Espargaro to complete the opening tour in fifth, though swiftly managed to move through KTM’s Brad Binder and Fabio Quartararo to establish himself within the podium places in just a couple laps.
He then managed to surprise pole man Luca Marini to claim second just before half-distance while Maverick Vinales looked to be controlling things out front on his Aprilia.
After a few rest laps Martin began to close in though, the Spaniard wasting little time in capturing the leadership with a strong move into Turn 10 with just a few circulations left to run.
He managed his lead across the rest of the encounter to eventually take the chequered flag 1.1 seconds clear of Marini, Martin wrestling away the championship lead from Bagnaia with his third-successive MotoGP win.
Marini managed to dispatch a fading Vinales in the same manner as Martin had just a lap later and eventually claimed second, while VR46 team-mate Marco Bezzecchi carved through the pack from ninth on the grid to complete the rostrum positions.
Both VR46 pilots achieved these strong results off the back of broken collarbones. Marini suffered his breakage in the Indian GP sprint encounter three weeks ago, while Bezzecchi underwent surgery just five days ago before traveling to Indonesia.
Vinales ended up slipping to fourth by the chequered flag having lost his podium place to Bezzecchi on the final lap, while Yamaha’s Quartararo rounded off the top five.
Fabio Di Gianantonio rode a mature race to collect solid points for sixth on his Gresini-run Ducati ahead of factory Ducati duo Enea Bastianini and Francesco Bagnaia, the latter still looking uneasy with his Desmosedici as he ceded the points lead.
The reigning world champion now faces a seven-point deficit to overturn Martin heading into Sunday in Indonesia.
Jack Miller claimed the final point for ninth having run wide earlier in the race while battling within the top six, the Aussie getting the better of RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira in the latter stages of the contest.
Takaaki Nakagami did well to climb through the field from 20th on the grid to 11th at the flag on his LCR Honda, the Japanese ace leading home Pramac’s Johann Zarco.
Franco Morbidelli struggled to make progress on the sister Yamaha entry and matched his grid position of 15th in the sprint, the Italian coming home just ahead of Honda’s Joan Mir and GasGas’ Pol Espargaro.
Brad Binder was the final classified finisher in 19th having been taken out by Aleix earlier in the race, the latter trying to dive the South African at Turn 16. Aleix lost the front of his RS-GP mid-corner though and skittled both down, the Aprilia racer retiring from the race.
Marc Marquez also failed to reach the finish after the Honda pilot dropped his RC213V at Turn 11 on the opening lap.
