While pole setter Fabio Quartararo is also in front in warm-up practice in Mandalika, Marc Marquer crashes heavily again – His Honda is a total loss
After taking pole on Saturday, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) also secured the fastest time in the warm-up for the Indonesian Grand Prix. In 1:32.001 minutes he distanced Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) by four tenths. Miguel Oliveira (KTM) was third. Marc Marquez (Honda) caused a shock moment.
The focus of the warm-up session was on the tyres. Many riders put on used soft rear tyres to check their durability. Given the high temperatures in Mandalika, they are expected to degrade badly in the race. However, not all teams were able to cope with the medium variant.
Some riders, including the two Repsol Honda riders, started the session on rain tyres to start them off and headed for the pits after one lap to rehearse for the bike change for a possible flag-to-flag race.
Back on track with slicks, Marc Marquez was in danger of a crash early on when he almost highsided at turn 10 but managed to catch a fall. Towards the end of the session he was no longer able to do so: in turn 7 the Spaniard was catapulted out of his seat again, only this time extremely high into the air.
While his Honda rolled over several times, Marquez hit the tarmac hard and remained sitting there, initially stricken, but then picked himself up and walked away, accompanied by track assistants. Of the many crashes the Honda rider has already taken this weekend, this was the worst.
Yesterday he had crashed twice in Q1, missing out on Q2 and only qualifying in 15th place. Both he and Pol Espargaro then complained of massive grip problems due to the harder rear tyre construction.
With the disturbing images, the classification almost became a minor matter. There, Marquez lined up fourth behind the top trio of Quartararo, Vinales and Oliveira. Marquez’s fellow Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the top five. He will start the race from the last grid position.
Ducati riders Johann Zarco and Enea Bastianini followed in sixth and seventh. Alex Marquez (LCR-Honda), Marco Bezzecchi (VR46) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) completed the top 10, all within 0.765 seconds of each other.
Update 4:35am: After his heavy crash, Marc Marquez was at the track for a first check-up at the medical centre. He appeared okay. However, the Spaniard was taken to hospital in order to rule out an injury.
