Fourth Place & Soaked in Indonesia ⛈
Hi everyone,
Normally I hate finishing fourth – as close as you can get to the podium and some champagne – but here in Indonesia I was actually pretty happy to get fourth because it was one of those days where there's so much you can lose. I was ninth on the grid, hadn't scored a point in the first race, the track was soaked and we'd done no wet running all weekend … there was a lot that could have gone wrong. So all in all, pretty happy.
We had to wait a while to get started and that was a big old thunderstorm we had – reminded me of some of them we get back home – but the show had to go on and I was glad it did, because the fans here have been awesome all week and it was good to put on a race for them. I came through pretty quickly and got out the front for a few laps but it was pretty obvious Miguel (Oliveira) had more pace than me, and I didn’t have a lot for him. From there it was trying to keep it upright and get on the podium, so at least I managed one of those two.
I tell you, it was pretty wet out there. I was totally drenched even after the sighting lap – it was like I'd stood in front of a hose in my leathers – but being wet is fine, it's being wet and cold that's the worst. Not much chance of that with it being 35 degrees all the time here! So it was OK, all in all. It wasn't ideal and 20 laps in the dry here would have been much more fun, but I think the fans went home pretty happy anyway.
When Fabio (Quartararo) and then Johann (Zarco) came past me there was only about four laps to go and I thought about how and where I'd be able to attack Johann, but then I had a moment when my foot came off the pegs and decided to play it smart and just tried to get home. Coming into this race with no points on the board definitely entered my thinking. In the end 13 points are better than another zero and me sitting in a wet gravel trap, so there was no point throwing myself off. Be tidy, get it home, live to fight another day. There's 19 races to go and a lot can happen, we saw that today with some guys who were up the front in Qatar well down the pack here and the other way around.
I'll be honest, I wasn't all that impressed with Fabio because I passed him for second at the start of lap two and he proceeded to ride his motorcycle into my leg. I know he was on pole and I was coming through from ninth but it's not necessary to ride at someone's front tyre like that, and I'll definitely have a word to him. I had better pace at the time and he just rode into my leathers, basically. An unnecessary risk, I reckon. It turned out fine but I didn’t think that was on.
You can see from how tight the championship is that MotoGP is at such a high level at the moment, from the outside I'm sure you can see how bloody difficult it is. Gone are the days when you could struggle a bit and not pay for it on the timesheets. One session in Qatar, I didn't go with a new tyre ... bang, 19th. Wasn't like I wasn't pushing, but 19th. Everyone seems like they're a contender now. So it's about being calm for me. Last year, finishing fourth in the championship – seems a few people out there have forgot about that, but it is what it is – anyway, I got a lot of experience and gained some things. So, be calm, be humble, keep your head down and chip away. That's the way to build a season and why days like today are so important.
Anyway, it was a good experience being here, besides the rain. With the passion for motorcycles here, the following is massive and until you see it with your own eyes ... we rode all the way from the president's palace through the city in Jakarta a few days before the race and streets were just rammed with people. It's amazing, I've literally never seen anything like it in my life. Us riders felt pretty fortunate and pretty loved!
Argentina is next – I have some good memories there and the same with Texas after that, so we've got some good ones coming up. Catch up with you all from there.
Cheers, Jack