"Webb said he was satisfied with the performance of marshals at the Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit," Managing Director of the Mandalika Grand Prix Association (MGPA), Priandhi Satria said in a written statement on Sunday.
The marshals are said to be very capable and agile in cleaning the track surface and have shown a rapid increase in ability since they were employed in the MotoGP event, held in Indonesia for the first time after 25 years.
"They work really well," Satria remarked.
Some 300 marshals consist of youth groups from Pujut Sub-district, NTB Mobile Brigade Police, the National Search and Rescue (Agency) rescuers, and companions of several marshals from Malaysia.
Satria said the Indonesian marshals had worked efficiently during one of the major incidents that occurred when the underside part of Alex Rins' motorbike (Suzuki Ecstar) caught fire after Turn 12 and he left his motorbike at Turn 13.
The incident left oil on the track that made the session entered Red Flag. However, some of the marshals who have served in Mandalika since the World Superbike (WSBK) on 19-21 November 2021 worked quickly.
"They extinguished the fire, removed debris, and cleaned the oil in the track so the session could continue. Webb was satisfied with the marshals' skill and efficiency in extinguishing the fire and cleaning the track surface from traces of gasoline and oil," he conveyed.
Satria further mentioned how Webb saw the track officials showing positive developments from pre-season until now.
"Marshals show improvement from the pre-season in February until today," he said.
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He addressed that the knowledge of these local marshals had been more developed after receiving inputs from several marshals from Malaysia who were brought in to share their experiences.
Satria mentioned that several rider accidents that occurred on the second day were not caused by track factors. Citing the FIM's explanation, as the authority that graded Mandalika Circuit with Grade A homologation, the accidents were not related to an error on the track.
"That was the FIM's own evaluation after seeing the track conditions. Today, I spoke to Mike Webb and he said everything happened today had nothing to do with the homologation that had been given," Satria noted.
He also explained that his party had made minor improvements to the track surface on March 19 by repairing and adding gravel on the circuit.
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Translator: Akhyar Rosidi, Resinta S
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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