A little tighter again! Álex Márquez beats the competition in the Malaysian MotoGP sprint, Martín pulls off another two points at Bagnaiu

MotoGP entered the final chapter of this season with the Malaysian Grand Prix, the 18th of 20 races. Thanks to his second place, the former narrowed the gap to the latter’s 11 points.

In the morning qualifying, Jorge Martín seemed to dominate again. However, in the final moments, his third pole position in a row was stolen by championship leader Pecco Bagnaia with a thrilling lap 58 thousandths faster. Fellow Bagnaia Enea Bastianini also put a great performance on his CV when he scored the attempt that put him on the front row of the grid.

The battle for the title means nothing to the younger Márquez

Bagnaia sprinted away brilliantly and held on to the lead. Behind him, the order was shuffled around so that at the end of the first lap Bagnaia was leading ahead of Álex Márquez and Bastianini. Martín held on to fourth ahead of the factory KTM pair of Jack Miller and Brad Binder.

The younger of the two Márquezes was already showing solid race pace in practice sessions and clearly felt more comfortable on the machine than Bagnaia, who was unable to build a sufficient lead over the rest of the field. Behind them, the struggling Bastianini fell behind both Miller and Binder. Martín, meanwhile, watched closely as Márquez looked for any opportunity to get ahead of Bagnaia.

It was clear that Márquez was not interested in the situation surrounding the world title fight. Martín did get ahead of him at the start of the third lap, but Márquez returned the favour, allowing Bagnai to make an easy pass.

While the younger Márquez battled for the sprint win, the older one, Marc, crashed at Turn 14. Respol Honda’s misery was sealed a lap later by the crash of its other rider, Joan Miró.

Unconvincing second half of the sprint for Bagnaiu

But the reigning world champion’s smile fell very quickly when he realised that Márquez was not slowed down by his duel with Martín. On the contrary, the Spaniard hooked ahead of the Italian again and finished him off with an attack into Turn 9 on lap six.

To make matters worse, Bagnaiu also outpaced Martín on the same lap. Bagnaia lost his consistency in the second half of the sprint and was happy to have his teammate Bastianini behind him, who decided not to attack his compatriot until the end of the race.

A bit of luck, however, landed on Bagnaia’s address. A piece of what was most likely paper stuck to the right side of the front wing of his Ducati and it was all that was missing to stick in the area where the air flows towards the engine.

Nothing major happened until the chequered flag, as the gap between the leading riders stretched to over a second. Álex Márquez took his second win of the season in Saturday’s race ahead of Martín and Bagnaia.

The points gap between the duo has now shrunk to 11 points. At the end, Bastianini faced pressure from Binder, but in the end he managed to hold on to his fourth position ahead of the South African, the Italian’s best result in the sprint.

Results of the sprint at the Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix (10 laps = 55.430 km; top 10 only):

1. Álex Márquez (Sp., Ducati) 19:58.713
2. Jorge Martín (Span., Ducati) +1.589
3. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) +3.034
4. Enea Bastianini (Ita., Ducati) +3.242
5. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) +3.310
6. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) +4.318
7. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) +5.307
8. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) +5.501
9. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) +6.420
10. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) +7.241

2023 MotoGP rider standings (top 10 only):

1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 396
2. Jorge Martín (Spa., Ducati) 385
3. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) 313
4. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) 254
5. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) 198
6. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) 196
7. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) 170
8. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) 165
9. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) 148
10. Fabio Quartararo (Fra., Yamaha) 134

Source: MotoGP