Unusual names up front in opening Mandalika MotoGP practice

Opening practice for MotoGP’s Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika may well turn out to have been a totally anomalous track cleaning lottery.

But several beleaguered riders will hope there might have been at least a little reality in their positions.

The 45 minutes featured the now extremely rare sight of not just one but two Hondas topping the timesheets, as LCR’s Taka Nakagami and Johann Zarco both had spells up front.

Nakagami couldn’t stay there, slipping back to a slightly rather giddy-for-a-Honda 11th place.

But Zarco was in the top three until the last moments before ending up fifth.

The usually overshadowed fourth man on a 2024 Ducati Franco Morbidelli finished the morning fastest for Pramac, on a 1m30.689s that put him 0.221 seconds clear of Maverick Vinales - whose second place was encouraging for recent struggler Aprilia.

Championship leader Jorge Martin was third ahead of Pedro Acosta, with his main title rival Pecco Bagnaia 14th and longer shots Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini sixth and eighth respectively. Martin’s session ended with two strikingly bad practice starts.

The unusually large time gaps among the frontrunners - with a second covering the top eight - suggested this was all much more about a dusty track steadily coming up to speed than tangible pace. But for Honda, Aprilia and Morbidelli, any hint of those performances being repeated when it counts would be very welcome.

OLIVEIRA INJURED

The session featured a nasty accident for Trackhouse’s Miguel Oliveira, who had a high-side through the Turn 3 and 4 complex and remained sat trackside getting medical assistance afterwards.

Checks in the medical centre afterwards revealed a fracture to Oliveira's right wrist. He then went to hospital for scans to assess whether surgery would be required.