Mandalika gravel traps under fire again after Fabio Quartararo tumble: "They have to do something"

Mandalika's gravel traps have once again become a talking point after Fabio Quartararo injured himself crashing into one during practice for the Indonesian Grand Prix on Friday.

The 'step' between the asphalt run-off areas and the subsequent gravel traps came in for heavy criticism at this venue a year ago, in the wake of Marc Marquez's crash during the grand prix.

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Quartararo lost control of his Yamaha halfway during the session on Friday. An initially smooth landing and slide on the asphalt turned nastier when his body hit the gravel and he was pitched into the air.

Though the Frenchman resumed action and made the Qualifying 2 cut, he said he would wake up "a bit sore" in the morning. He was holding an ice pack to his wrist during his media briefing after the session, during which he mentioned a thumb injury in English and both 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 was not a big one, but just entering to the gravel was the worst part. Luckily nothing is broken, just some muscle things 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 was another to illustrate the 'step effect' when he crashed late in the session, although he escaped injury.

Quartararo said there was still work to do on gravel traps like the Turn 9 one which caught him out on Friday.

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"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. "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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