Raceday at Indonesia, as a variable climate conditions shows today at Mandalika International Circuit. With notable reprecursions that occurred before the race, a late modification on the race lenght from 27 laps to 20 laps and Marc Marquez being unable to compete after a huge crash on the warm up.

Just some minutes after the Moto 2 race ended, a huge storm showed on the track. Adding to this the poor asphalt conditions, it was clear that the race wasn’t going to start at the corresponding hour. Race was oficially delayed and the riders and teams only option was to wait for further announcements.

The situation looked quite worse as minnutes passed by, numerous water ponds were forming on the race circuit, without mentioning that ligthning was striking on track asphalt and near zones of the circuit.

Eventually there was a quick meeting between marshalls and team directors to determine the future of the Grand Prix, but suddenly the rain stopped falling at the track. Race direction announce that race will be underway, after a +1hr of delay.

Lights were finally off and the race started. With a expected mix of riders gaining and losing positions on the first lap of the race. The ones who took the best on the initial lap were Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira, who quickly overtook the Poleman Fabio Quartararo and started to separate from the rest of the grid. Surprisingly, there were no incidents on the first laps of the race.

As the first laps were history. Both Miller and Oliveira were the fastest riders at the competition, with a notable difference compared to the other riders. The KTM rider eventually made a move on the Aussie rider and taking the lead of the race. Miller then lost some time after a huge close call on turn 1. The first 2 retirements saw Andrea Dovizioso abandon because a mechanical failure and Jorge Martin crashing on turn 1.

With Oliveira flying on track, now was Miller who feel the pressure of Johann Zarco, meanwhile Quartararo was on the hunt of Alex Rins for the 4th place. Track was still wet and water ponds were still visible on the track’s layout.

The main focus of the race was on the battle for the 2nd place, with Miller and Zarco on a fierce battle on track. As both Ducatis were on the dispute, Fabio Quartararo was starting to gain some big momentun, with critical passes on Johann Zarco and Jack Miller, there was a small posibility to close the gap on Miguel Oliveira, as the track started to dry. There was some focus on the intense battle for 8th place at the final laps of the race that involved Brad Binder, Aleix Espargaro, Darryl Binder and Enea Bastianini as main protagonists of this contest.

Even as the impressive pace that the bike of Quartararo was showing on track, the gap was too big enough for Oliveira to secure the first race win for a KTM bike on the season, with Fabio Quartararo ending on a strong 2nd place result and with the fellow frenchman Johann Zarco closing the podium step at 3rd.

Race Results:

1. Miguel Oliveira /// 2. Fabio Quartararo /// 3. Johann Zarco
4. Jack Miller /// 5. Alex Rins /// 6. Joan Mir
7. Franco Morbidelli /// 8. Brad Binder /// 9. Aleix Espargaro
10. Darryl Binder /// 11. Enea Bastianini /// 12. Pol Espargaro
13. Alex Marquez /// 14. Luca Marini /// 15. Francesco Bagnaia
16. Maverick Viñales /// 17. Raul Fernandez ///18. Fabio Di Giannantonio
19. Takaaki Nakagami /// 20. Marco Bezzecchi /// 21. Remy Gardner

DNF: Jorge Martin, Andrea Dovizioso DNS: Marc Marquez

The 2nd round of the calendar comes to an end after many notable event on asphalt conditions, notable incidents, variable weather conditions and a very long race report to write on. Next up would be the return of Argentina to the MotoGP calendar, after a 3 year absence because of the global pandemic, on 2 weeks.