Bastianini wins, Bagnaia scores crucial Malaysian GP podium

Enea Bastianini has won the Malaysian Grand Prix while MotoGP championship-leading factory Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia beat title rival Jorge Martin to the podium.

Bastianini exited the first corner in the lead of the race after Martin took Bagnaia wide, and that was where ‘La Bestia’ stayed for the remainder of the 20 laps around Sepang.

Sprint winner Alex Marquez scored second in similar fashion on a Gresini Racing Ducati, with the Ducati Team’s Bagnaia shaking off an early challenge from Martin to claim third, and 16 precious championship points.

With Martin only scoring 13 points by finishing fourth, the Pramac Racing rider now trails by 14 with two rounds remaining and 74 points left on the table.

Behind that all-Ducati top four was Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in fifth.

Sixth went to Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) and seventh to Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha), while Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM) faded to eighth after running sixth for much of the race.

Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati) and Luca Marini (VR46 Ducati) rounded out the top 10.

Martin had looked to take the lead from pole-sitter Bagnaia when the field braked for the first corner but ran wide and took his key rival with him.

He fared worse of the two, however, emerging fifth once the field exited Turn 3, behind leader Bastianini (Ducati Team) from Alex Marquez, Bagnaia, and Bezzecchi.

Quartararo ran sixth but Red Bull KTM’s Jack Miller was wasting no time behind one of the Yamahas, putting the move on the Frenchman at Turn 9.

Martin passed Bezzecchi for fourth at Turn 14 on the standing lap and then set the gunsights on Bagnaia.

He tried to put a move on the #1 Ducati at the same spot on Lap 3 but Bagnaia made the cutback on exit and clung on to third spot as they almost traded paint.

Martin had another crack on the next lap at Turn 4 but could not pull it up and Bagnaia swept back around the outside as they ran through Turn 5.

Meanwhile, the top two of Bastianini and Alex Marquez ran about 1.4s up the road while Joan Mir (Repsol Honda) and Miguel Oliveira (RNF Aprilia), who were circulating in the middle of the pack, crashed out in separate incidents.

From there, the contest settled down, save for a crash for Aleix Esapargaro (Aprilia Racing) at Turn 9.

Bastianini had earned some breathing space relative to Alex Marquez and they still ran first and second at the halfway mark.

The latter was 1.5s clear of Bagnaia, who had himself pulled 1.5s clear of Martin, with that margin growing.

Bezzecchi continued to hold fifth at four seconds further back, with Miller sixth, just ahead of Quartararo, Di Giannantonio, and Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), while Marini sat 10th.

On Lap 12, Bastianini was a full second up on Alex Marquez and Bagnaia had stretched his advantage over Martin beyond two full seconds.

Quartararo re-passed Miller for sixth at Turn 11 while Binder crashed out at Turn 12, meaning Morbidelli inherited ninth having just prised 10th position from Marini through the Turn 1/Turn 2/Turn 3 sequence.

Takaaki Nakagami crashed at Turn 9 on Lap 13 before Quartararo picked off a struggling Bezzecchi on Lap 15 when the Italian had a moment at the same corner.

Bastianini took a 1.9s gap over Alex Marquez into the final lap, with Bagnaia six seconds to the good relative to Martin.

When they reached the chequered flag, #23 sealed his first win for the factory Ducati Team by an official margin of 1.535s back to Alex Marquez.

Bagnaia was a further 2.027s adrift but had beaten Martin by 6.964s, with Quartararo almost as far back again in fifth.

Bezzecchi was sixth while Morbidelli got by Miller on the penultimate lap to take seventh.

Behind Di Giannantonio in ninth and Marini in 10th was Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing), from Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati), Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), Augusto Fernandez (GasGas Tech3), and Pol Espargaro (GasGas Tech3) in the final points-paying position.

Iker Lecuona (LCR Honda), Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati), and Nakagami were the non-points finishers.

Joining Binder, Aleix Espargaro, Oliveira, and Mir as DNFs was Raul Fernandez, who stopped with an apparent technical problem for his RNF Aprilia on Lap 7.

Earlier, Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Pedro Acosta clinched the Moto2 championship title by finishing second on the day at Sepang, to Fermin Aldeguer.

Acosta stays in the KTM fold when he moves up to the premier class next year at GasGas Tech3, where he will join 2022 Moto2 champion Augusto Fernandez as team-mate.

The Qatar Grand Prix takes place next weekend at Lusail.

Race results: Grand Prix race

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	23	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	39:59.1370
2	73	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+1.535
3	1	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	+3.562
4	89	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	+10.526
5	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+15.000
6	72	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+16.946
7	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+18.553
8	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+19.204
9	49	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+19.399
10	10	Luca MARINI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+19.740
11	12	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+21.189
12	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	+23.598
13	93	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+27.079
14	37	Augusto FERNANDEZ	ESP	GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3	KTM	+28.940
15	44	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3	KTM	+29.849
16	27	Iker LECUONA	ESP	LCR Honda	Honda	+50.960
17	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	ESP	Aruba.it Racing	Ducati	+53.564
18	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda	Honda	+1:42.162
DNF	33	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+9 laps
DNF	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+12 laps
DNF	25	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia	+14 laps
DNF	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia	+15 laps
DNF	36	Joan MIR	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+16 laps

Race winner: 20 laps

Riders’ championship

Pos	Rider	Nat	Pts
1	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	412
2	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	398
3	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	323
4	Brad BINDER	RSA	254
5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	200
6	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	198
7	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	175
8	Luca MARINI	ITA	171
9	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	156
10	Jack MILLER	AUS	156
11	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	149
12	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	100
13	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	93
14	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	84
15	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	76
16	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	76
17	Augusto FERNANDEZ	ESP	69
18	Alex RINS	ESP	54
19	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	52
20	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	40
21	Dani PEDROSA	ESP	32
22	Joan MIR	ESP	24
23	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	13
24	Lorenzo SAVADORI	ITA	9
25	Jonas FOLGER	GER	9
26	Stefan BRADL	GER	8
27	Michele PIRRO	ITA	5
28	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	5
29	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	3
30	Iker LECUONA	ESP	0
31	Alvaro BAUTISTA	ESP	0