Indonesian GP: Hakim Danish Misses Q2 After Practice Crash
Hakim Danish's opening day at the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia was defined by interruptions. A mechanical issue sent the AEON Credit - MT Helmets - MSI rider back to the pits early in Free Practice 1, and a crash at turn 11 in the afternoon's Practice session cut his running short again. In between, he still produced quick laps, finishing 12th in the morning and 18th in the afternoon at the Pertamina Mandalika Circuit. He will start from the Q1 group in Saturday's qualifying round.
Danish's morning got off to a stuttering start. Around the five-minute mark of the session he returned to the pits with a mechanical issue before rejoining the track, and the timing sheet shows how much running it cost him: a lengthy stop in the garage, a second pit visit later on, and just 14 laps spread across three runs, with only nine of them counting.
What running he did get in told a better story. After a run of laps in the 1'39s, his final run was his quickest — a 1'39.020 followed by a session-best 1'38.830 on lap 12, then a 1'38.862 on his last lap of the session. That was good for 12th, 1.315 seconds off David Almansa's session-topping 1'37.515 and just 0.017 seconds behind 11th-placed David Muñoz.
The afternoon Practice session was hotter, with the track surface at 65°C, and Danish started it well. He opened with a 1'39.318 and followed it with a 1'38.350 on his third lap, his fastest of the day. His timing then shows an unfinished lap straight after that best, and in the 18th minute of the session he crashed at turn 11.
He returned to the track and was quickly back on the pace, going 1'38.531 on lap 5 — just 0.181 seconds off his best, but the crash had already limited his running to only eight laps, the fewest of any rider in the field. He finished 18th, 1.181 seconds behind Almansa's 1'37.169 and 0.237 seconds behind 17th-placed Scott Ogden, on a timesheet where ten positions from 10th to 17th were covered by just 0.130 seconds.
The two AEON Credit - MT Helmets - MSI riders traded places across the day. Danish was well ahead of teammate Ryusei Yamanaka in the morning, 12th against 20th, but Yamanaka produced one of the biggest improvements of the afternoon, jumping to sixth with a 1'37.785, just 0.616 seconds off Almansa and 0.565 seconds clear of Danish.
Almansa set the pace in both sessions, and his PR lap was only 0.147 seconds shy of Adrian Fernandez's 2025 all-time lap record at Mandalika (1'37.022), a sign of how quick the track is running.
In Friday Practice sessions, Danish will start from the Qualifying 1 group in Saturday's qualifying round. That means he has to come through Q1 to reach the Qualifying 2 shootout, and in recent rounds it has been the fastest four in Q1 who have moved on. Having lost track time to a mechanical issue in the morning and a crash in the afternoon, he has real ground to make up.
Credit Photo : ZK Racing
