The red-hot favourites coming into this weekend at the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia? Aprilia Racing. The fastest in Free Practice 1? Aprilia Racing. Marco Bezzecchi, last year’s polesitter and Sprint gold medallist, kickstarted the weekend in fine form to finish 0.237s clear of second-place Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team) with a 1:30.132, as the reigning World Champion begins his weekend with an eye-catching P2. Meanwhile, World Championship leader Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing) earned P3 to see the top three in the title race front the pack before this afternoon’s Practice.
And Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) made it the championship 1-2-3-4 at the end of FP1, the KTM star was 0.294s away from Bezzecchi’s best effort. Fifth place went to Raul Fernandez (SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team), meaning three RS-GP bikes sit in the top five so far in Indonesia.
The fourth-fastest Aprilia, Ai Ogura (SuperFiles Trackhouse MotoGP Team), and last year’s Lombok winner Fermin Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) were Free Practice 1 crashers, with both sophomore stars uninjured in their separate incidents. The latter ended the session in P9, with the Japanese star P21.
Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team's Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio collected P6 and P7 in FP1, with Fabio Quartararo sticking his Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP in eighth place to begin his weekend in promising fashion. And rounding out the top 10 behind his aforementioned teammate? Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP).