Aron Canet (Pons Wegow Los40) tried all he could to challenge the Championship leader but was unable to keep the pace as he had his hands full trying to keep Fermin Aldeguer (Beta Tools SpeedUp) at bay. The SpeedUp rider went on take 3rd place behind his fellow Spaniards.
Canet was sat on pole position as the revs were rising ahead of lights out in Mandalika. The race got underway and it was a good start for your polesitter, but cat-like reactions coupled with Turn 1 bravery saw Championship leader Acosta snatch the holeshot from the front of row two.
A Turn 1 collision between Jeremy Alcoba (QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2™), Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools SpeedUp) and Alberto Surra (Forward Team) saw the latter both go down and Alcoba earn two Long Laps, but there was less drama at the front.
Canet latched himself onto Acosta in the opening stages as Manuel Gonzalez (Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 Team) had his hands full with Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) as he tried to defend third place.
Lap by lap though, Acosta was now pulling away from Canet and Arbolino made his move on Gonzalez with 19 laps to go. But it wasn’t long before Aldeguer pushed his way through on the both of them to fly his way into podium contention. The Boscoscuro rider pulled away from the pair as he left them to fight it out for the scraps.
With 10 laps remaining Acosta had checked out with almost a 1.5s lead. The Spaniard was untouchable at the front as he hit his markers and set a blistering pace to take the victory by 2.044s.
That left Canet in a lonely 2nd place, but with Aldeguer making consistent inroads on his compatriot. Meanwhile, Jake Dixon (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) had joined Arbolino and Gonzalez in the battle for fourth.
A mistake from the Brit then saw him lose touch with the battle, with Gonzalez now putting bike lengths into Arbolino. Up ahead though, with the chequered flag nearing, Aldeguer was making inroads on Canet as the hunt for P2 was on.
The Valencian had enough in the tank to pull the pin in the closing stages however and quickly responded to take 2nd place, 2.672s up the road from Aldeguer who rounded out the podium.
The Dixon vs Arbolino scrap raged on as the Brit recovered his time lost with 2 laps remaining and capitalised on a mistake from the Italian to demote him to P6. Dixon then had the bit between his teeth on the final lap as he chased down the distant Gonzalez to snatch 4th place from the Spaniard just moments before the flag.
With Indonesia said and done, attention now turns to the MotoGP™ Guru by Gryfyn Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. It’s only a week away, and Acosta arrives with a mammoth 65-point lead. Can he clean up Down Under?
Or visit the official MotoGP website motogp.com
