Perseverance Pays Off for Team ENEOS at 2024 MotoGP Indonesia

Team ENEOS pushed themselves to the limit in extreme heat at Mandalika International Circuit for the 2024 Grand Prix of Indonesia. Fabio Quartararo rode to a P7 finish after taking some time to get up to speed, while teammate Álex Rins rode mostly solo to finish 12th.

Starting from P6 on the grid, El Diablo held his position through the opening corners, but struggled to heat up his rear tire, forcing him to drop to P13 by the third lap. After Fabio Di Giannantonio crashed out and Marc Marquez suffered a mechanical issue, Quartararo moved up to P11, where his tire finally warmed up, allowing him to finally find a good rhythm. He overtook Raul Fernandez on lap 14, where he finally began a late charge, overtaking Brad Binder, Johann Zarco and Enea Bastianini when he took a fall with seven laps remaining. The Frenchman crossed the finish line in P7, 13.203sec from the race winner.

“We struggled to warm the medium rear tire quickly, causing us to lose many seconds at the beginning of the Race,” said Quartararo. “Our pace was really good though; fast, and I finished closer to the leading pack. Rather than focusing on positions, we need to focus on how fast we’re going.”

Rins was eager to make up ground from his P15 starting position, and slid into P14 ahead of a rider pileup in Sector 1 of the opening lap. He briefly dipped into P13 before dropping further to P16 due to the rear tire being unable to warm up. Though his pace gradually improved, he lost a position to Joan Mir on lap 6. But the misfortunes of others played to the Spaniard’s benefit; he rode P12 throughout most of the race alone, holding the position to the end, 33.633sec from first. A post-race tire pressure infringement penalty for Takaagi Nakagami saw Rins move up to 11th in the revised Race timesheets.

“We knew it was going to be difficult to warm up the rear tire, but it was even harder than we expected,” Rins explained. “We couldn’t make the progress we wanted, so we’ll have to analyze the data before the Japanese race.”

Following the Indonesia GP, Quartararo holds 13th in the overall standings with 82 points, while Rins is joint 19th with 20 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP retains ninth in the team championship with 102 points and Yamaha is fourth in the manufacturer championship with 93 points.

NEXT RACE

Team ENEOS travels to Mobility Resort Motegi for the 2024 Grand Prix of Japan from October 4-6.