Race report

MotoGP Malaysian GP: Bastianini takes comeback win, Bagnaia opens points lead

Ducati’s Enea Bastianini romped to a first MotoGP victory since Aragon last September on Sunday at the Malaysian Grand Prix, as team-mate Francesco Bagnaia extneded his championship lead.

Bastianini has enjoyed his best weekend of the season at the Sepang International Circuit, having made a breakthrough with the set-up of his Ducati to improve his corner-entry performance.

In a year in which he missed eight trands prix through numerous injury woes, Bastianini’s factory Ducati seat has come under threat, as rumours mount that Jorge Martin could be promoted to Pramac.

Leading from Turn 1 from third on the grid, Bastianini stormed clear of Gresini’s Alex Marquez to score his fifth grand prix victory and first as a factory Ducati rider by 1.535 seconds.

Marquez held onto second to add to his sprint win from Saturday, while Bagnaia saw off an early challenge from title rival Jorge Martin to complete the podium.

This has opened Bagnaia’s championship lead up to 14 points moving to next weekend’s Qatar GP, with Martin fourth in the race at Sepang.

Pramac’s Martin looked to get the better initial launch off the line at the start of the 20-lap grand prix, but ran wide on the run into Turn 1.

This allowed Bastianini to come through on the inside to take the lead, as Marquez on the Gresini Ducati jumped up to second ahead of Bagnaia.

Martin dropped to fifth behind VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi in the opening corners, but quickly moved back ahead at Turn 14 with a tight move.

The top two already had a 0.5s lead over Bagnaia come the end of lap one, while two laps later Martin launched a raid on third.

Martin tried to go up the inside of Bagnaia at the Turn 14 right-hander, but ran slightly wide and allowed his factory Ducati counterpart to scythe back past.

At Turn 4 on lap four, Martin tried again but ran wide once more, letting Bagnaia lean on him into Turn 5 and hold onto third.

After this battling, the top two were already 1.5s clear of Bagnaia, who was starting to drop Martin.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

A battle for the lead never materialised, with Bastianini steadily extending his lead over Marquez as he went unchallenged to the chequered flag.

Bagnaia streaked 6.9s clear of Martin, while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was a fighting fifth after passing Bezzecchi late on.

Sixth for Bezzecchi has officially ruled him out of the championship battle.

Franco Morbidelli was seventh on the second factory Yamaha ahead of KTM’s Jack Miller, Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and VR46’s Luca Marini.

Maverick Vinales was the only Aprilia to see the chequered flag in 11th, as crashes for team-mate Aleix Espargaro, RNF’s Miguel Oliveira and a technical issue for RNF’s Raul Fernandez ruled them out.

Johann Zarco was a distant 12th on his Pramac Ducati ahead of Honda’s Marc Marquez, who recovered from 20th on the grid, while Tech3 GasGas duo Augusto Fernandez and Pol Espargaro completed the top 15.

Alvaro Bautista was 17th in his grand prix wildcard with Ducati, while crashes for KTM’s Brad Binder and Honda’s Joan Mir ended their races early.

MotoGP Malaysian GP - Race results:

Driver Info

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	20	39'59.137		166.3		25
2	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	20	+1.535 40'00.672	1.535	166.2		20
3	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	20	+3.562 40'02.699	2.027	166.1		16
4	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	20	+10.526 40'09.663	6.964	165.6		13
5	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	20	+15.000 40'14.137	4.474	165.3		11
6	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	20	+16.946 40'16.083	1.946	165.1		10
7	F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing	21	Yamaha	20	+18.553 40'17.690	1.607	165.0		9
8	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	20	+19.204 40'18.341	0.651	165.0		8
9	F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing	49	Ducati	20	+19.399 40'18.536	0.195	165.0		7
10	L. Marini Team VR46	10	Ducati	20	+19.740 40'18.877	0.341	164.9		6
11	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	20	+21.189 40'20.326	1.449	164.8		5
12	J. Zarco Pramac Racing	5	Ducati	20	+23.598 40'22.735	2.409	164.7		4
13	M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team	93	Honda	20	+27.079 40'26.216	3.481	164.4		3
14	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	20	+28.940 40'28.077	1.861	164.3		2
15	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	20	+29.849 40'28.986	0.909	164.3		1
16	I. Lecuona Team LCR	27	Honda	20	+50.960 40'50.097	21.111	162.8
17	A. Bautista Ducati Team	19	Ducati	20	+53.564 40'52.701	2.604	162.7
18	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	20	+1'42.162 41'41.299	48.598	159.5
dnf	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	11	+9 Laps 22'09.255	9 Laps	165.1	Accident
dnf	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	8	+12 Laps 16'11.438	3 Laps	164.3	Accident
dnf	R. Fernández RNF Racing	25	Aprilia	6	+14 Laps 12'11.705	2 Laps	163.6	Mechanical
dnf	M. Oliveira RNF Racing	88	Aprilia	5	+15 Laps 10'12.006	1 Lap	163.0	Accident
dnf	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	4	+16 Laps 8'09.740	1 Lap	162.9	Accident
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