Malaysia MotoGP: Bagnaia wins tense race to edge closer to title

Bagnaia needed to outscore Quartararo by 11 points to secure the world championship at Sepang, but Quartararo recovered from 12th to third to keep the door ajar to set up just the fifth season finale title decider in the MotoGP era.

Poleman Jorge Martin converted pole to the holeshot on his Pramac Ducati, while Bagnaia went from ninth to second at the first corner as Quartararo followed him up the order to sixth.

Martin held an early advantage as he extended his lead to over a second, while Bagnaia had the close attentions of Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini.

Quartararo – carrying a left-hand finger fracture after an FP4 crash - quickly overtook Yamaha teammate Franco Morbidelli for fifth on the opening lap, with the Italian dropping down the order after serving two long lap penalties for impeding a rival in FP3.

Honda’s Marc Marquez was fourth at the end of the first lap but his pace wasn’t strong enough to keep the podium runners in sight, and he soon fell into the clutches of Quartararo.

Quartararo tried to pass Marquez at the last corner when the Honda rider ran wide, but was shuffled back to fifth on the cutback.

Marquez ran wide again into Turn 1 at the start of lap five, however, allowing Quartararo to come through as Marquez had to turn his attention to fending off the hard-charging Suzukis of Joan Mir and Alex Rins.

On lap seven, Bagnaia was promoted to the lead when Martin crashed out going through Turn 5, with Bastianini close to wiping out the factory Ducati rider into Turn 14 that same tour.

Bastianini would overtake Bagnaia for the lead in a clear sign of no factory orders from Ducati being issued to the Gresini man, the Italian passing his future teammate at Turn 4 on lap 11 of 20.

Bagnaia made a mistake chasing Bastianini on lap 14, running slightly wide at Turn 7, but rallied to retake the lead at the last corner.

With Quartararo third, Bagnaia was only 23 points clear in the championship and needed VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi to get himself into the mix.

Bezzecchi cleared the Suzuki pair and Marquez by mid-distance and closed to within a second of Quartararo.

That gap would come down to as low as four tenths, but come lap 16 Quartararo had moved a second clear again and continued to pull away as he started to close in on the leading duo.

Bastianini continued to hound Bagnaia over the final laps and came close to contact on the last tour as he outbraked the factory Ducati rider on the outside into Turn 9.

Bagnaia held firm, however, and got to the chequered flag 0.270s clear of Bastianini for his seventh – and most crucial – win of the 2022 season.

Quartararo completed the podium for the first time since Austria to ensure the championship battle goes down to the final round in Valencia in two weeks, albeit with a very slim opportunity to win a second title.

Bezzecchi was fourth, 6.4s clear of Rins as his Suzuki teammate Mir crashed late on and ended up 19th after re-joining.

Jack Miller had an awful start from 14th on the grid as the factory Ducati rider dropped outside of the top 20. But the Australian managed to recover to pass Marquez late on for sixth.

Brad Binder trailed Marquez by 2.5s on his KTM ahead of Pramac’s Johann Zarco and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, whose title hopes have come to an end along with Bastianini’s.

Espargaro was involved in a collision with Morbidelli at the penultimate corner on the last lap, though the Yamaha rider was handed a three-place penalty for that – dropping him 14th behind RNF Racing’s Cal Crutchlow, KTM’s Miguel Oliveira and Honda’s Pol Espargaro.

Raul Fernandez takes the final point in 15th for Tech 3 KTM ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez, Remy Gardner (Tech 3) and Mir.

RNF’s Darryn Binder, Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and LCR stand-in Tetsuta Nagashima crashed out, while VR46’s Luca Marini was forced to pit on lap one due to a front ride height device issue.

Malaysian GP -  Race results:

Cla	#	Rider		Bike	Gap
1	63	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati
2	23	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	0.270
3	20	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	2.773
4	72	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	5.446
5	42	Alex Rins		Suzuki	11.923
6	43	Jack Miller		Ducati	13.472
7	93	Marc Marquez		Honda	14.304
8	33	Brad Binder		KTM	16.805
9	5	Johann Zarco		Ducati	18.358
10	21	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	20.235
11	41	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	21.591
12	35	Cal Crutchlow		Yamaha	24.641
13	88	Miguel Oliveira		KTM	24.918
14	44	Pol Espargaro		Honda	25.586
15	25	Raúl Fernández		KTM	27.039
16	12	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia	30.427
17	73	Alex Marquez		Honda	33.322
18	87	Remy Gardner		KTM	33.691
19	36	Joan Mir		Suzuki	41.838
20	40	Darryn Binder		Yamaha
21	49	Fabio Di Giannantonio		Ducati
22	89	Jorge Martin		Ducati
23	45	Tetsuta Nagashima		Honda
24	10	Luca Marini		Ducati
View full results