Raul Fernandez set a new lap record at the Mandalika circuit on Friday, topping the pre-qualifying session for the Indonesian Grand Prix with a time of 1:28.725, according to Sky Sport. The Trackhouse rider finished ahead of the factory Aprilias of Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin, completing an Aprilia sweep of the top three places.
The session, which decides the ten riders who go straight into Q2, ran roughly 35 minutes behind schedule after a red flag in Moto2 held up the start. Race direction chief Graham Webber attributed the delay to connectivity problems, Sky Sport reported.
Why it matters
Friday's running at Mandalika carried extra weight because the top ten riders earn direct passage to Q2, skipping the first qualifying phase entirely. With the championship fight between Bezzecchi, Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin still live, every session on the Indonesian track shapes the grid for both Saturday's sprint and Sunday's full-length race.
Fernandez's record also matters for a different reason: it erased the previous benchmark of 1:28.832 that Bezzecchi set during qualifying at Mandalika in 2025. Morning practice times had stayed above that mark, leaving open the question of whether anyone would beat it. Fernandez answered it in the afternoon.
Fernandez leads an Aprilia lockout
Fernandez's pace built through the session rather than arriving in one burst. He first went quickest at 1:29.793, then lowered his own mark to 1:29.252, before finally dropping to the record 1:28.725. Sky Sport described him as visibly comfortable on the Indonesian layout.
Behind him, Bezzecchi and Martin — the two riders closest to him in the title race — filled out the top three. Pedro Acosta and Marc Marquez followed, putting five riders within reach of the front.
Fabio Di Giannantonio had briefly held the provisional best time at 1:29.488, with Bezzecchi slotting in just over a tenth behind him, before Fernandez's late charge reordered the top of the timesheet.
Late drama reshuffles the Q2 places
The closing minutes produced a string of crashes that changed who advanced directly. Enea Bastianini fell twice on the Tech3 bike and will have to go through Q1 as a result. Alex Marquez also went down while sitting seventh and in a Q2 position, and Alex Rins crashed while ninth, leaving his place at risk.
Fabio Quartararo crashed heavily into the gravel and got up limping, but Sky Sport later reported he was feeling well enough to return to the track. He had earlier recovered five positions to sit fifth provisionally on his Yamaha.
Franco Morbidelli and Francesco Bagnaia scraped into Q2 at the last moment, finishing ninth and tenth. Sky Sport noted that Bagnaia had suffered the same front-end locking he experienced in FP1, a sign of his ongoing difficulties with the bike. Morbidelli, meanwhile, complained that Aldeguer had impeded him, an incident placed under investigation.
Fermin Aldeguer ran straight into the sand and his session appeared to be over, though he still held a Q2 place at the time. Ai Ogura, making his first MotoGP appearance at Mandalika after missing last year's race through injury, worked his way into the top ten with the ninth-best time.
The riders who secured direct Q2 spots were Fernandez, Di Giannantonio, Bezzecchi, Marc Marquez, Morbidelli, Ogura, Martin, Aldeguer, Quartararo and Acosta. Ogura, Aldeguer and Bastianini were listed for Q1.
Espargaro returns as Honda stand-in
Aleix Espargaro was back on track, riding in place of the injured Joan Mir for this round. The Honda test rider finished last, more than a second behind the next-slowest rider, Ogura, and Sky Sport reported he is still well short of full confidence on the bike. The report raised the possibility that HRC will use his outing to evaluate components that Takaaki Nakagami could not test in Japan because of his own early injury.
What to watch
Qualifying takes place on Saturday at 4:50, followed by the sprint race at 9:00. The full-length Indonesian Grand Prix runs on Sunday, also at 9:00. Sky Sport is carrying all sessions live, with streaming on NOW. The immediate question is whether Fernandez can repeat his record pace when the grid is actually decided, and whether Bagnaia can find a solution to the front-end problems that have followed him from practice into pre-qualifying.
