There was plenty of track action going on at the Mandalika International Circuit on Saturday, with Red Bull GASGAS Tech3's Pedro Acosta and Augusto Fernandez facing qualifying and the Tissot Sprint. Acosta's incredible lap in Q2 saw him start on the front row in P3, while Fernandez qualified in 21st. Later on in the afternoon, the rookie finished 6th of the sprint after a solid start, while Fernandez unfortunately crashed just a few laps before the end.

Already qualified for Q2 after his 8th position in Practice, Pedro Acosta made the final adjustments during Free Practice 2, which he ended 10th after fourteen laps this morning. As the final battle for the pole in Indonesia kicked off, Pedro set an early lap in 1’30.155, one that placed him 4th while Jorge Martin had already set a benchmark in the low 1’29 allowing him to be provisionally at the front. After the first run, Acosta was in 5th, 1.067 seconds from the pole. As he exited the pitlane for run number 2 behind the Factory Ducatis and Jorge Martin, Acosta clocked in a phenomenal 1’29.671 that placed him provisionally on the front row in 2nd, but two minutes still remained on the clock. A late improvement from Marco Bezzecchi who had just crashed with less than 2 minutes remaining saw Pedro eventually finish third of the session. Incredible qualifying from the rookie, who was set to start from the front row for the third time this year. Lights out at 15:00 LT for 13 laps of craziness. From second, Acosta took a decent start, although losing one position to Francesco Bagnaia who made his way to 2nd from his 4th place, while Marco Bezzecchi had lost two. The shark moved up to 2nd sooner than later when Jorge Martin made a mistake in T16, leaving Acosta on the chase for new leader Bagnaia. Close behind though, there were Marco Bezzecchi, Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini putting pressure on the rookie, all waiting for a chance to move past. That chance did come soon, as both the #72 and #93 overtook Pedro in lap 2. The next lap, Bastianini made a move in the first turn. Pedro defended, as much as he could, until T10. After four laps, Pedro was in 5th. Fabio Quartararo was not far behind clocking slightly faster laps than Acosta. How long could the shark resist? The rookie found himself ahead of the big group, all hungry to catch back with Bastianini, who was starting to make the gap with them. Franco Morbidelli was pushing, but Pedro kept his ground, until the final turns as the Italian eventually got the best of the rookie. That’s P6 in the sprint, a good result to feed from heading to tomorrow’s race.

Augusto Fernandez also returned on track on Saturday morning, hoping that the work from overnight would pay off after the Spaniard lacked confidence and speed on his RC16 in the Practice time attacks. In the opening Free Practice 2, the Spaniard was finally able to show a bit more competitiveness and reduce the gap on his opponents, finishing with the 14th time with a 1’30.996, just 0.666 seconds from the best time. As the heat of Lombok continued to increase, it was time for Q1 at 10:50 local time, and a busy session awaited the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 rider. His first lap set was a 1’31.292, one that he later improved to 1’31.086 on his last flying lap. With a gap of 1.091 seconds from the fastest lap of the session, Augusto qualified in 21st on the grid ahead of the afternoon’s sprint. At the start, Fernandez took a rather solid start, moving up to P16 in just two laps with Brad Binder just behind him. Soon, he started to lose a bit of rhythm compared to the others, and he progressively dropped positions. As five laps remained, he was in 18th behind Takaaki Nakagami, but unfortunately, he crashed in one of the fast corners, in T4, just two laps before the checkered flag. It is another DNF for the Spaniard, who will aim to do better tomorrow. We’ll be back with the main race on Sunday, at 15:00 LT (GMT+8).