Quartararo Reignites Mandalika Gravel Trap Criticism Following Indonesian GP Practice Crash

Mandalika’s gravel traps have returned to the center of safety discussions after Fabio Quartararo was injured in a practice crash at the Indonesian Grand Prix on Friday.

The design flaw concerning the ‘step’ between the asphalt run-off and the subsequent gravel traps has faced heavy criticism at this circuit previously, notably a year ago following Marc Marquez’s crash during the grand prix.

During the session on Friday, Quartararo lost control of his Yamaha midway through. An initially smooth landing and slide across the asphalt turned more dangerous when his body struck the gravel, launching him into the air.

Although the Frenchman returned to action and passed into Qualifying 2, he warned he would wake up “a bit sore” the next morning. During his media briefing following the session, he held an ice pack to his wrist, citing a thumb injury in English and neck and shoulder pain in French.

Fabio Quartararo holding an ice pack against his wrist following sprint crash

Photo by: German Garcia Casanova

“I’m a bit sore on the left side,” he said in his English press chat. “The crash was fast, but it was not a big one; just entering the gravel was the worst part. Luckily nothing is broken, just some muscle issues in the thumb, so we could go back to the bike. But tomorrow I will wake up a bit sore.”

Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini also illustrated the ‘step effect’ with a late-session crash, though he escaped injury.

Quartararo noted there is still work to be done on gravel traps such as the Turn 9 configuration that caught him out on Friday.

“I think we need to put [the gravel] at least at the same height as the Tarmac. Because I think it’s a bit higher, so when you arrive you just bump in the air. So I think that it’s too high.”

“Today I was lucky because the crash was nothing spectacular, but just when you hit the gravel, it’s bad. So they have to do something in this area,” concluded Quartararo, who also made passing reference to the 2025 Marquez crash.

The man at the centre of the story last year was also asked about the issue in his media briefing on Friday.

Enea Bastianini, Red Bull KTM Tech 3

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

“We always complain,” said Marquez. “It’s true that it’s not good for the safety of the riders. It’s not good even for the bikes. Because they are always trying to [save] the budget. But the best way to save budget is to try to save the riders and the bikes from this kind of crash.”

“That area, as we know, is super fast. And when you go in the gravel with that high speed, the damage is there.”

But both Marc and his brother Alex, who led the criticism a year ago, chose not to fan the flames as much as they might have given the recurrence of the issue. They said it was simply up to the organisers to do their jobs.

“The thing is that the riders we cannot check corner by corner,” Marc said. “It’s the people that are working for that.”

“It’s a job that MGPSEG needs to do,” added Alex. “It’s not the riders’ job. So hopefully they improved from the experience last year.”

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