Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia

Sepang MotoGP: Rossi crash hands Marquez easy win

Marc Marquez took a comfortable ninth victory of the 2018 MotoGP season in the Malaysian Grand Prix after long-time leader Valentino Rossi crashed.

podium: race winner Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, second place Alex Rins, Team Suzuki MotoGP, third place Johann Zarco, Monster Yamaha Tech 3

podium: race winner Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, second place Alex Rins, Team Suzuki MotoGP, third place Johann Zarco, Monster Yamaha Tech 3

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

From second on the grid, Rossi outdragged poleman Johann Zarco to take the lead into the first corner, and from there proceeded to build a lead of more than one second.

Marquez meanwhile quickly set about making up for his six-place grid penalty for impeding Andrea Iannone in qualifying and by the end of the fifth lap of 20 he had taken up station behind Rossi.

Initially, Rossi was able to extend the gap over his former arch-rival, but as the race moved into its second half Marquez began to chip away at the Yamaha rider's advantage.

Closing in at around a tenth per lap, Marquez had managed to get within 0.6 seconds of Rossi when the Italian rider suffered a low-speed crash at Turn 1 on lap 17, denying onlookers a repeat of the pair's infamous 2015 Sepang duel.

Marquez inherited a lead of four seconds over Zarco as a result of Rossi's demise, and from there he was able to cruise to a straightforward 1.8s win and clinch the constructors' title for Honda.

Zarco was passed for second by the Suzuki of Alex Rins on the final lap at Turn 4, allowing Rins to equal his career-best result, while Zarco held on for third to claim his first podium finish since May.

Maverick Vinales could well have contended for victory but for his poor grid slot of 11th, which left him losing time stuck behind the Nieto Ducati of Alvaro Bautista in the early laps.

He made steady progress in the second half of the race, passing the second Honda of Dani Pedrosa on lap 14 to take fifth - which would become fourth when teammate Rossi crashed.

Pedrosa's fifth place equals his best result of a difficult 2018 season, while Andrea Dovizioso endured a low-key run to sixth on the best of the Ducatis.

Dovizioso, winner of the last two MotoGP races at Sepang, had climbed as high as fourth in the early exchanges only to drop behind Rins, Pedrosa and Vinales as the race went on.

Sixth was still enough to confirm Dovizioso as the runner-up in the standings with Rossi failing to score.

Bautista led home a trio of satellite Ducati riders in seventh ahead of Pramac pair Jack Miller, whose gamble on a medium rear tyre didn't pay off, and Danilo Petrucci.

Hafizh Syahrin (Tech 3) stormed from 23rd and last on the grid to 12th on the opening lap, and managed to secure the final top 10 position on a day he became the first Malaysian to start a premier class grand prix.

Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) was 11th ahead of Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS Honda), LCR Honda stand-in Stefan Bradl, Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) and Bradley Smith (KTM). Rossi remounted and finished 18th.

Among the other crashers were Andrea Iannone, who lost the front end of his Suzuki on lap one at Turn 15 while following Marquez, and Jorge Lorenzo's Ducati replacement Michele Pirro.

Race results:

Pos. No. Rider Bike Laps Time/Gap
1 93 Spain Marc Marquez  Honda 20 40'32.372
2 42 Spain Alex Rins  Suzuki 20 1.898
3 5 France Johann Zarco  Yamaha 20 2.474
4 25 Spain Maverick Viñales  Yamaha 20 4.667
5 26 Spain Dani Pedrosa  Honda 20 6.190
6 4 Italy Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati 20 11.248
7 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista  Ducati 20 15.611
8 43 Australia Jack Miller  Ducati 20 19.009
9 9 Italy Danilo Petrucci  Ducati 20 22.921
10 55 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin  Yamaha 20 26.919
11 41 Spain Aleix Espargaro  Aprilia 20 29.503
12 21 Italy Franco Morbidelli  Honda 20 30.933
13 6 Germany Stefan Bradl  Honda 20 35.322
14 30 Japan Takaaki Nakagami  Honda 20 37.912
15 38 United Kingdom Bradley Smith  KTM 20 39.675
16 12 Switzerland Thomas Luthi  Honda 20 41.820
17 10 Belgium Xavier Simeon  Ducati 20 43.978
18 46 Italy Valentino Rossi  Yamaha 20 58.288
19 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding  Aprilia 20 1'00.191
Ret 44 Spain Pol Espargaro  KTM 16 4 Laps
Ret 51 Italy Michele Pirro  Ducati 5 15 Laps
Ret 17 Czech Republic Karel Abraham  Ducati 3 17 Laps
Ret 29 Italy Andrea Iannone  Suzuki 0 20 Laps

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Sepang MotoGP: Vinales heads Rossi in damp warm-up
Next article Marquez "didn't have anything more" in Rossi fight

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia